Parroquia de San José

Puebla's devotion to Saint Joseph grew out of a problem: lightning. In 1556, barely a quarter-century after the city's founding, the council did not know what to do about the storms that kept causing deaths, so it drew lots among several saints for a protector; Saint Joseph came out, and his feast is kept on 19 March. Years later Bishop Diego Romano had a church built to serve the northern barrios, with the boundary between this parish and the Sagrario set on the old Veracruz–Mexico road, the former Calle de Los Mesones, today 18 Oriente-Poniente.

That first church, dedicated in 1595, faced west; its two vaults now form the vestibule of the present building, begun in 1628 along with the small square in front and partly finished in 1693 under master builder Diego de la Sierra. The front is faced with talavera tile, and the single brick tower ends in an octagon; the atrium keeps pillars that once stood in the cathedral's atrium.

Inside, in three naves, eight great gilded Churrigueresque altarpieces face a Neoclassical high altar, and the sacristy is considered by many the most beautiful in Puebla. The chapel of Jesús Nazareno is one of the finest examples of New Spain's Baroque. There are canvases by Antonio de Santander, Diego Berruecos, Pascual Pérez, Miguel Jerónimo Zendejas, Agustín Arrieta and others, and sculptures attributed to the Cora family workshop.