Exconvento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

Oaxtepec is known for its pools, but across from the IMSS holiday centre stands one of the best-kept convents in Morelos. Dominican friars reached the area in 1528 and chose Oaxtepec as the first link in a chain of houses that would stretch to the Mixteca, dedicating it to their founder, Saint Dominic de Guzmán. Historians argue over the exact dates, but agree that building took about twenty years, that the friary went up before the church, and that the whole complex was finished by 1586. It is counted as the first Dominican house founded in an Indigenous town in Mexico.

One story from those years: in the 1530s Fray Domingo de la Anunciación had the statue of Ometochtli worshipped in Tepoztlán torn down and buried in the foundations of the Oaxtepec church. The buildings sit on a pre-Hispanic platform, with an atrium opening onto the town plaza, a single nave, two small chapels and twin towers on one side. The two-level cloister keeps large stretches of mural painting, along with the old refectory and library.

The convent has had many lives. In 1812, during the Siege of Cuautla, it was General Leonardo Bravo's headquarters; in the Revolution it housed Zapata's Liberation Army of the South; later it was a high school affiliated with the state university (UAEM) and the local house of culture. In 1987 the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) took over its use from the education ministry and INAH. The 2017 earthquakes cracked vaults, corridors and cells and loosened parts of the murals; the church reopened for worship first, and in July 2024 IMSS reopened the restored friary to the public after spending 21 million pesos. It holds a library and a small museum, and has been part of the Popocatépetl monasteries World Heritage Site since 1994.