Yecapixtla - San Juan Bautista

A hermitage of Franciscans of 1525 in an Indian settlement was replaced in 1535 by the Church of San Juan Bautista with an Augustinian convent, founded in 1535 by Father Jorge de Avila. This fortified construction has more Gothic features than any other 16th c. convents in New Spain. In the atrium there is a cross and relatively simple posas decorated with pinnacles.

The convent church has a marvellous plain façade with battlements flanked by buttresses which merge into the watch-towers. The main portal is embellished with typical colonial-Plateresque ornamentation, medallions cherubs, niches, Tritons and flowers. Below the gable can be seen the coat of arms of the Augustinian order (a heart pierced by arrows) and the five stigmata of St Francis of Assisi. The choir window is in the shape of a Gothic rosette. Within the church the Gothic groined vaulting above the altar, the 16th c. pulpit chiselled from stone, and the painting of the ceiling and of the walls below the chancel are especially fine. The cloister is simple and solid.