Yanhuitlán

Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, east of Teposcolula, was an important Mixtec city long before the Spanish arrived, and in colonial times it became a busy trading town that sent silk to Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca. Its great monument is the church and former convent of Santo Domingo, built by Dominican friars around the middle of the 16th century on top of pre-Hispanic foundations. Raised on a broad platform and braced by massive buttresses, it looms over the small town like a fortress.

Inside, the single long nave holds one of the richest collections of colonial art in the Mixteca: carved and gilded side altarpieces, many old statues of saints, a carved wooden ceiling under the choir and a main altarpiece built in panels like a folding screen. In the choir loft is a pipe organ from around 1700 that was restored to playing condition in 1998.

The convent rooms beside the church house a museum of religious art. Together with Teposcolula and Coixtlahuaca, Yanhuitlán is one of the three great Dominican convents of the Mixteca, and many travelers visit all three on the same trip.