The Dominican Route: Sixteenth-Century Stone and Devotion

After the conquest, Dominican friars raised stone churches and convents across Oaxaca that are still recognised by their vaults, their altarpieces and their open chapels. The Dominican Route brings together the five that stand out, all from the sixteenth century, in the years of evangelisation.

San Pedro Apóstol, Villa de Etla

Dominican friars built it in the sixteenth century over a first church that collapsed in an earthquake. Indigenous craftsmen finished the coffered woodwork because the master carpenter died during the building. The pilgrims’ portal stands out, supported by Tuscan columns.

Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán

To show that a new religion had arrived, this church was built partly over a pre-Hispanic structure. It is made of stone blocks cut and carved to the last detail; the church and former convent had Gothic vaults over arches designed to withstand the area’s frequent tremors.

The altarpiece follows a technique called línea quebrada, the “broken line,” which lets every face of it be seen from anywhere in the nave.

San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula

This church is known for its open chapel, its mouldings that represent the Rosary and its bell tower. It was built in the sixteenth century and has been modified since. Traces of pre-Hispanic elements can be seen in its arches, and inside there are gilded eighteenth-century altarpieces and the images of the Christ of Teposcolula and of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Arches and fluted columns of the open chapel at Teposcolula, with a ribbed vault and a gilded cross — The open chapel at Teposcolula. Photo: Douglas Favero Photography.

Seen from below, the chapel’s vault opens like a star of ribs.

Ribbed vault of the open chapel at Teposcolula seen from below, with gilded bosses and blue sky — Vault of the open chapel at Teposcolula. Photo: Douglas Favero Photography.

The Assumption of Our Lady, Tlaxiaco

It was built around 1548. Its ground floor was covered with vaults and the upper part with timber. In the nineteenth century it was still in the care of Dominican friars. Inside there is a neoclassical altar and a pipe organ.

San Juan Bautista, Coixtlahuaca

This complex was finished in 1576 and consisted of a church, a cloister, an open chapel and an atrium. Its exterior stands out for sculptures, rose windows, medallions and shell-shaped niches. Inside, the main altarpiece, from the eighteenth century, reuses elements of the first one, from the sixteenth.

If you would like to follow the Dominican Route unhurriedly, with time to stop in every chapel, begin a conversation with us.

Source: “Ruta II. San José Mogote-Coixtlahuaca,” Arqueología Mexicana, vol. 24, pp. 38-41.