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In 1959, Mircea Eliade stressed on the importance of the“hierophany”, or the irruption of the sacred, as a necessary condition for aspace to be considered sacred. Jonathan Z. Smith, on the other hand, hasquestioned Eliade’s paradigm by considering the ways in which human behaviorcan also shape the idea of sacredness from a situational perspective. Therelevance of such theoretical standpoints seems obvious when studying theOchavo Chapel, a space that was built within the Cathedral of Puebla’s physicaland symbolic limits. A look into the interpretative literature dedicated tothis cathedral’s room makes it urgent, however, to reconsider the validity ofthe dichotomy between sacred and profane space. Built and decorated in the 1680s, the chapel of the HolySpirit, mostly known as the Ochavohas been considered as one of the few religious spaces that still portrays itsoriginal “Baroque splendor”. Although widely acknowledged as a site ofart-historical interest, the Ochavo has never been studied in a systematicmanner. For this reason, its function and decorative program have remainedunclear for both the academic and the non-academic community. Despite the lackof consensus, scholars addressed this dilemma by proposing a set ofinterpretations based on the room’s location, octagonal shape, floor plan andart collection. One of the most successful hypotheses was proposed by ClaraBargellini, who described it as the “first kunstkammerin the Americas”, and the only space built in New Spain to hold an artisticcollection, where the accumulation of “rich” and “curious” objects attests fora privileging of “aesthetic interests” over religious ones. The chapel’sdecoration with numerous oil-on-copper paintings produced in Flanders and inNew Spain, along with relics, agnus deiwaxes, featherwork mosaics, mirrors and sculptures settle – according toBargellini – within the categories that organized kunstkammer collectionism: naturaliaand artificialia. Furthermore, theprevalence of adjectives such as “curious”, “rich”, “elegant” and “precious” inmid-eighteenth century descriptions led Bargellini to consider that suchqualities interfere with the effectiveness of the chapel as a place of worshipor any other spiritual purpose. Documentary findings pivotal for my research project,located in Mexico and Spain, allow me not only to clarify the history of thechapel’s conception and building, but also to propose new ways of understandingits function. In relation to the role of human activities in the definition ofsacredness, I have found evidence that proves that the Ochavo was consecratedto the Holy Spirit, and as such, it also had a tabernacle (no longer present)and an altar table that, in 1690, received the papal distinction of “privilegedaltar” for 15 years. Also, inventories allow me to identify a votive hierarchythat was defined by three formerly veiled images, from which two of them wereof the type of vera effigies. Along with the ritual and physical markings of divinepresence, primary sources reveal that this octagonal space was originallyconceived of as an oratory in which to pray in a “private and quiet manner andin which to keep relics” and whose proximity with the sacristy points at thecompliance with Charles Borromeo’s post-Tridentine prescriptions regarding thesacristy’s oratory in his Instructionesfabricae et supellectilis ecclesiasticae (1577). In such way, the Ochavoillustrates the extent to which the Cathedral’s Spanish and criollo clergy wasaware of and participated from a broader dynamic in which the architecture of cathedralsin Europe and the Americas were adapted to host specialized rooms built toassist in the preparation of the liturgy. Thus, in building the Ochavo andother auxiliary rooms, Puebla’s late-seventeenth century bishops and chapterdemonstrated not only their knowledge of the current state of affairs in termsof religious building practice, but also the clergy’s own interest in claimingpolitical and religious legitimacy and prestige by turning the project into adirect quotation of the Ochavo reliquary room from the Cathedral of Toledo(Spain), the Kingdom’s most important cathedral at the time. Along with the political connotations of naming and shapingPuebla’s Ochavo in the manner of its counterpart in Toledo, the expenditure insuch an ornate and peculiar oratory, with no parallel in Mexico City’scathedral, further suggests interests that overcame practical purposes. Theintegration of the arts unfolding inside the Ochavo is not exclusive of Puebla.Rather, it originates in a tradition of oratories, reliquary rooms and camarines (votive chambers) formerlyfound in reserved spaces in court and high-rank clerical buildings in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Spain and Italy. Coinciding with a noble and refinedpractice that viewed art and object collecting as a vehicle to cultivate thespirit, these oratories showed decorative criteria that echoed the kind ofdisplay and sometimes the variety of objects found in a kunstkammer. As I argue, however, rather than proof of secularcollectionism, its abundance and richness is potentially meaningful in acontext of prayer where sensory stimuli is essential for the cultivation of anintrospective spirituality as echoed in contemporary ascetic literatureproduced in Puebla and abroad. Through its octagonal structure and its gildedand richly decorated devotional program, the Ochavo produced an overwhelmingview, in 360°, that required active engagement, contemplation and reflection. Seldomapproached by Colonial Latin American Art scholarship, the Ochavo Chapel ofPuebla presents a unique opportunity to delve into the configuration ofsacredness within religious architecture, and especially to approach thespatial dimension of private and often solitary sites of devotion. Elsaris Núñez Méndez holds a PhD in Art History with a major in Viceregal Arts from the College of Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she completed her dissertation entitled “Oración, virtud y sacerdocio. La capilla del Ochavo en la Catedral de Puebla”. Núñez has a strong interest in the arts of seventeenth-century Puebla (Mexico) and its relationship with the broader artistic and religious dynamics developing in the Hispanic world, including those concerning the sensory cultivation of an intimate spirituality through the integration of the arts in ornamental architectural spaces. She was a pre-doctoral fellow of the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico&#160;(CONACYT) (2014-2018) and of the College of Arts &#38; Sciences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010-2012), where she obtained her Master’s degree. She was a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston for the exhibition&#160;Made in the Americas.&#160;The New World Discovers Asia&#160;(2015). She is co-author of the book&#160;La Catedral de Puebla. Una mirada&#160;(2015), and has produced articles and chapters for specialized publications and exhibition catalogues published in Mexico, Peru and Spain. Supported by UNAM and CONACYT-Foro Bilateral sobre Educación Superior, she has carried out archival and field research in Spain and Mexico, and the Benson Latin American Collection – University of Texas Austin, respectively. She is a member of the International Association of Art Critics – Chapter of Puerto Rico and of the research group “Spanish Italy &#38; Iberian Americas”, funded by the Getty Foundation and organized by Columbia University (USA). Currently, she is a curatorial researcher at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City.  