Church of San José, Colonial church in historic centre of Aguascalientes, Mexico.

The Church of San José has a plain, smooth facade with a single cantera stone portal: a semicircular arch framed by two Tuscan columns supporting a frieze of metopes and triglyphs, topped by a triangular pediment interrupted at the center. The only tower rises on the left, with two bodies and a neo-Gothic octagonal drum and eight-sided pyramid spire. The interior follows a Latin cross plan with a single nave and transept, and the dome is decorated with Chinese porcelain anagrams.

In 1684 Diego de Quijas y Escalante wrote to the Spanish king to request Aguascalientes' first hospital and cemetery; the permission also covered a primitive chapel served by Fray Domingo de Santa María. The chapel was rebuilt from 1741 and again from 1767 under cura Mateo José de Arteaga, and the new temple was blessed on 14 April 1767. The Juanine order left Mexico in 1820, the hospital closed in the mid-19th century, and on 24 January 1906 Bishop José María de Jesús Portugal made it a parish.

Inside hang eight colonial paintings by Miguel Cabrera, José Alcíbar and other New Spain artists. The parish was blessed and chosen under that name on 24 January 1906 by José María de Jesús Portugal, the city's first bishop. The dome is finished in burnished stucco and decorated with Chinese porcelain tile anagrams.

The church stands in the historic center of Aguascalientes, a short walk from the Plaza de la Patria. The lateral garden was laid out in 1937 and gives a shaded spot to view the single left-hand tower. The building is a protected colonial monument, so access follows the parish's opening around services.

The dome has a burnished finish and is decorated with Chinese porcelain tile anagrams, a detail easily missed from street level. The single tower on the left rises in two carved-stone bodies with a neo-Gothic octagonal drum and eight-sided pyramid, topped by four sculptures at its base corners.