The fortress-like complex is easily seen from the highway as one travels south from the capital city of Oaxaca on the road leading to Villa de Zaachila, and it is visited by both Mexican and international tourists.

[1] It is one of the most extravagant and elaborate colonial era constructions in Oaxaca, but it is often overlooked in favor of churches and monasteries located in the Mexico City area.

[1] The extravagances of the site, including the tall basilica, the elaborate baptismal font, the Gothic cloister and murals remain as national treasures.

[3] The decorative work of the monastery, especially its murals, are important because they show a systematic blending of indigenous elements into the Christian framework, done in order to support the evangelization process in the local Mixtec and Zapotec peoples.

[6] Official license to build the complex was granted in 1555 by viceroy Luís de Velasco and contained the mandate that the construction be “modest”.

The complex is a mixture of several architectural styles that were predominant in Europe in the 16th century and includes Gothic, Renaissance, Plateresque and Mudéjar elements.

[8] Unlike larger monastic institutions in Mexico City and Puebla, which could have as many as fifty monks, only four friars were stationed there in 1555, Domingo de Aguiñaga, Tomás Hurtado, Vicente Gómez and Antonio Barbosa.

The complex served as the principal site of interaction between the native populations and the Spaniards and was the center of the political, economic, social and religious life of the town, becoming Cuilapan’s identifying feature.

These secular authorities neglected the maintenance needs of the complex and it deteriorated until it was finally divested of its religious function by the 19th century.

[13] Vicente Guerrero was imprisoned in the small rooms of the lower cloister by political opponents and subsequently executed on 14 February 1831.

[14][15] The complex is center on a large walled courtyard or atrium, with small stone chapels in the northeastern and northwestern corners.

The atrium resembled the extensive courtyards (teocallis) of pre-Hispanic temples, and provided space for the 20,000 people that inhabited the area in the 1560s.

The building is austere with heavy buttresses supporting a semicircular dome[18] In the interior, there is an altarpiece with paintings attributed to Andrés de la Concha and a headstone marking the final resting place of Fray Francisco Burgoa.

[1] The murals contain Biblical and other religious scenes which show some interesting localized modifications, starting with the use of monochrome paintings.