Huejotzingo - Convent of San Francisco

The Convent of San Francisco de Huejotzingo, built by Father Juan de Alameda and Toribio de Alcazar between 1529 and 1570, is one of the oldest and finest in New Spain.

On the way to the convent we first come to the atrium, which is entered by a broad flight of steps and a doorway with three Plateresque arches. In the middle stands a carved stone cross, and at the four corners are posas (processional chapels) which are among the finest of the kind in Mexico; with their pyramidal roofs and their pattern of ornamentation they are in the Spanish-Plateresque tradition. Note the arms of the Franciscan order and the alfiz (hood-mould framing a doorway), here usually in the form of a Franciscan rope-girdle - a characteristic of the Mudéjar style.

The façade of the typical fortified church is decorated in Spanish-Plateresque style with columns and symbols of the order. The framing of the north doorway (now walled-up) is a fine example of colonial-Plateresque: here again the doorway arch is enclosed by an alfiz and the exuberantly but harmoniously ornamented façade bears the arms of the Franciscans.