Catedral de Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca's cathedral began as the Franciscan convent of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, the fifth house the order founded in Mexico. Friars were working here by 1525, starting with an open chapel for preaching to the Tlahuica, and construction of the complex began in 1529 on land given by Juana de Zúñiga, Cortés's wife, under the eye of Fray Toribio de Benavente, Motolinía. A date of 1532 is carved by the north door, and the ensemble was largely finished by about 1574. Like the other early convents around Popocatépetl it looks like a fortress, with thick walls topped by merlons, and since 1994 it has been one of the UNESCO World Heritage monasteries on the volcano's slopes. It became a cathedral in 1891, when Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Cuernavaca.

The walled atrium holds several buildings. The open chapel of San José, on the west side, rests on broad arches and is often described as the oldest and largest of its kind in Latin America; it is still a favourite for weddings. Around it stand the Tercera Orden chapel, built in 1722 in a folk baroque style, the Dolores chapel, one of the oldest structures on the site, and the neo-Gothic Santa Cruz chapel. The two-storey cloister, now offices of the bishopric, keeps frescoes of Franciscan missionaries in the Philippines and Japan, and one of the earliest images of the Virgin of Guadalupe appears under the choir.

Inside the main church, a 1957 renovation swept away the baroque altarpieces in favour of a bare modern interior, and in the process uncovered a mural of about 400 m² that had been hidden for a century: Philip of Jesus and his companions martyred in Japan, probably painted in the 17th century. The 2017 earthquake damaged the building badly, and it reopened for worship on 7 April 2019. A sacred art museum with 92 pieces from the 16th to the 21st century opened inside the complex in 2018 and charges admission.