Tlaxcala, officially Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, is the capital city and of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala and seat of the municipality of the same name. The city did not exist during the pre-Hispanic period but was laid out by the Spanish as a center of evangelization and governance after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The city was designated as a diocese but eventually lost that status to Puebla as its population declined. The city still has many of its old colonial structures, including the former Franciscan monastery, and newer civic structures like the Xicohtencatl Theatre.
Cholula, is a city and district located in the metropolitan area of Puebla, Mexico. Cholula is best known for its Great Pyramid, with the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios sanctuary on top, as well as its numerous churches.
Tlayacapan is the name of a town and a municipality located in the northeast part of Morelos state in central Mexico. It is located 60 km east from the state capital of Cuernavaca and about 1.5 hours south of Mexico City. It is a rural area, whose way of life has not changed much over the 20th century, with 90% of its population still partially or fully dependent on agriculture. The town has old mansions, houses with red tile roofs and streets paved with stones. Many ravines crisscross the area and are crossed by numerous stone bridges.
Huamantla is a small city in the municipality of the same name in the eastern half of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. The area has a long indigenous history, but the city itself was not founded until the early colonial period, in the 1530s. It is mostly agricultural but it is best known for its annual homage to an image of the Virgin Mary called Our Lady of Charity. This includes a month of festivities, the best known of which are the “night no one sleeps” when residents create six km of “carpets” on the streets made from colored sawdust, flowers and other materials. The other is the “Huamantlada” a running of the bulls similar to that in Pamplona.
The Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro are five missions built in Mexico between 1750 and 1760. The foundation of the missions is attributed to Junípero Serra, who also founded the most important missions in California. They were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003.
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven is the cathedral church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is situated on top of the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo) in the historic center of Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, eventually replacing it entirely. Spanish architect Claudio de Arciniega planned the construction, drawing inspiration from Gothic cathedrals in Spain.
The Earliest Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl are sixteen earliest 16th-century monasteries which were built by the Augustinians, the Franciscans and the Dominicans in order to evangelize the areas south and east of the Popocatépetl volcano in central Mexico. These monasteries were recognized by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1994, because they served as the model for the early monastery and church buildings as well as evangelization efforts in New Spain and some points beyond in Latin America. These monasteries almost uniformly feature a very large atrium in front of a single nave church with a capilla abierta or open chapel. The atrium functioned as the meeting point between the indigenous peoples and the missionary friars, with mass for the newly converted held outdoors instead of within the church. This arrangement can be found repeated in other areas of Mexico as these friars continued to branch out over New Spain.
Tlalmanalco is a municipality located in the far south-eastern part of the State of Mexico. The municipal seat and second largest town in the municipality is the town of Tlalmanalco de Velázquez The name is from the Nahuatl language, meaning “flat area.” The municipality's seal shows flat land, with a pyramid on it, representing its pre-Hispanic history, surrounded by small mountains, which is how the area was represented in Aztec codices. The municipality is bordered by the municipalities of Chalco, Ixtapaluca, Cocotitlan, Temamatla, Tenango del Aire, Ayapango and Amecameca. It also shares a border with the neighboring state of Puebla. Much of the municipality borders the Iztaccihuatl-Popocatepetl National Park. For this reason, Iztaccihuatl volcano dominates the landscape. The town has been designated as a “Pueblo con Encanto” by the government of the State of Mexico.
Calimaya is a town and municipality located just south of Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico in central Mexico. The settlement was probably established around 800 BCE, when the city of Teotenango was in existence. It remained an important town through the colonial period, part of the vast lands held by a family which came to be known as the Counts of Calimaya. The town is home to one of the oldest examples of an open chapel in the State of Mexico. Today, the municipality is still mostly agricultural but there has been a rapid construction of housing divisions, changing parts of it from rural to suburban.
Ozumba is one of 125 municipalities in the State of Mexico. Its municipal seat is the town of Ozumba de Alzate. It is located in the southeast portion of the Valley of Mexico, 70 km southeast of Mexico City near the Mexico City-Cuautla highway. The main feature of this area is the Parish of the Immaculate Conception which began as a Franciscan monastery in the 16th century. The entrance to the cloister area contains murals related to the early evangelization efforts of this order. They include scenes such as Hernán Cortés greeting the first Franciscan missionaries in Mexico, the martyrdom of some of the first young converts to Christianity and even a scene where the monks are flogging Cortés. The church itself inside has suffered the theft of a number of its antique pieces. The name Ozumba comes from Nahuatl meaning "over the streams of water". "de Alzate" was added to the formal name in honor of the scientist José Antonio Alzate y Ramirez Santillana who was born here.
Huejotzingo is a small city and municipality located just northwest of the city of Puebla, in central Mexico. The settlement's history dates back to the pre-Hispanic period, when it was a dominion, with its capital a short distance from where the modern settlement is today. Modern Huejotzingo is located where a Franciscan monastery was founded in 1525, and in 1529, the monks moved the indigenous population of Huejotzingo to live around the monastery. Today, Huejotzingo is known for the production of alcoholic apple cider and fruit preserves, as well as its annual carnival. This carnival is distinct as it centers on the re-enactment of several historical and legendary events related to the area. The largest of these is related to the Battle of Puebla, with about 2, 000 residents representing French and Mexican forces that engage in mock battles over four days.
San Andrés Cholula is a municipality in the Mexican state of Puebla in south-eastern Mexico. It forms part of the Metropolitan area of Puebla, and as of 2011, it is the fastest-growing municipality that conforms the Metropolitan Area, partly because the presence of universities and the wealthiest neighborhoods are located in San Andrés Cholula. Along with San Pedro Cholula and Santa Isabel Cholula, it conforms the most ancient still inhabited city in the Americas, Cholula de Rivadabia.
San Pedro Cholula is a municipality in the Mexican state of Puebla and one of two municipalities which made up the city of Cholula. The city has been divided into two sections since the pre Hispanic era, when revolting Toltec-Chichimecas pushed the formerly dominant Olmec-Xicallanca to the eastern side of the city in the 13th century. The new lords called themselves Cholutecas and built a new temple to Quetzalcoatl on the San Pedro side, which eventually eclipsed the formerly prominent Great Pyramid of Cholula, now on the San Andrés side. When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the city of Cholula was an important religious and economic center, but the center of power was on the San Pedro side, centered on what is now the main city plaza and the San Gabriel monastery. The division of the city persisted and San Pedro remained the more dominant, with Spanish families moving onto that side and the rest of the population quickly becoming mestizo. Today, San Pedro is still more commercial and less residential than neighboring San Andrés with most of its population employed in industry, commerce and services rather than agriculture. Although Cholula's main tourist attraction, the Pyramid, is in San Andrés, San Pedro has more tourism infrastructure such as hotels, restaurants and bars.
The Sanctuary of Atotonilco is a church complex and part of a World Heritage Site, designated along with nearby San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. The complex was built in the 18th century by Father Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, who, according to tradition, was called upon by a vision of Jesus with a crown of thorns on his head with blood on his face and carrying a cross. The main feature of the complex is the rich Mexican Baroque mural work that adorns the main nave and chapels. This was chiefly the work of Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre over a period of thirty years. The mural work has led the complex to be dubbed the "Sistine Chapel of Mexico." The complex remains a place of worship and penance to this day, attracting as many as 5,000 visitors every week.
The Cuernavaca Cathedral is the Roman Catholic church of the Diocese of Cuernavaca, located in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The church and its surrounding monastery is one of the early 16th century monasteries in the vicinity of the Popocatepetl volcano inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, built initially for evangelization efforts of indigenous people after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. By the 18th century, the church of the monastery began to function as the parish church of the city and in the late 19th century, it was elevated to the rank of a cathedral. Unlike many cathedrals in Mexico, this one does not face the city's main square, but rather is located just to the south, in its own walled compound, which it shares with a number of other structures. Unlike the other monastery structures from its time, the importance of this church provoked a number of renovation projects, the last of which occurred in 1957. This one took out the remaining older decorations of the interior and replaced them with simple modern ones. This renovation work also uncovered a 17th-century mural that covers 400 square metres (4,300 sq ft) of the interior walls and narrates the story of Philip of Jesus and twenty three other missionaries who were crucified in Japan.
San Bernardino de Siena Church is the parish church of the borough of Xochimilco in Mexico City. The church and former monastery complex was built in the 16th century over a former pre-Hispanic temple as part of evangelization efforts after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Since its construction, it has been the center of much of Xochimilco’s history and social life, including ceremonies related to is famous image of the Child Jesus called the Niñopa. The interior of the church contains a rare 16th-century altarpiece in Plateresque style with no columns or other supports. The only other altarpiece like it is in Huejotzingo, Puebla.
The Church and Convent of San Nicolás de Tolentino is the Catholic church and parish house of the people of Actopan. It has always belonged to the Diocese of Tulancingo in Mexico. This church is located in the center of city. This colonial building is a monument of great architectural importance which has lasted until today in the State of Hidalgo.
Church of San Francisco Acatepec is a colonial religious building, characteristic of the Mexican Baroque architecture, especially recognized for its facade of Talavera mosaics combined with red brick. It is located in the town of San Francisco Acatepec in San Andrés Cholula, Metropolitan area of Puebla, in the state of Puebla, Mexico, and it was one of the first churches founded in the region.
The San Gabriel Franciscan Convent or San Gabriel Friary is a church and friary in Cholula, Metropolitan area of Puebla City, Mexico.
Mendicant monasteries in Mexico were one of the architectural solutions devised by the friars of the mendicant orders in the 16th century to the evangelization in the New Spain. The religious function of these buildings was thought for an enormous number of Amerindian indigenous people to evangelize although soon, due to the policy of reduction, the whole became the social center of the pueblos de indios, transmitting to them the civil modes of the West, Castilian, various arts and crafts, health, and even funeral services.
