Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

Tlaxcala's cathedral is the church of the former Franciscan convent of Our Lady of the Assumption, on a rise southeast of the capital's main square. For centuries it was known as the church of San Francisco de Asís, and many locals still call it that. The cloister next door now holds the Museo Regional de Tlaxcala, which has a page of its own; this one covers the church, its side chapels and the atrium.

The first Franciscans arrived in 1524, and Tlaxcala was one of their four founding houses, with Mexico City, Texcoco and Huejotzingo; while it was being built, the friars lodged for about three years in the palace of the lord Maxixcatzin. The chronicler Diego Muñoz Camargo dates the church to 1530-1536, built by Indigenous labour. Tlaxcala was also the first seat of the Carolense bishopric: the Dominican Julián Garcés arrived on 19 October 1527 and made the little church of the Assumption his cathedral, though the see moved to Puebla in 1543. The Diocese of Tlaxcala was only restored in 1959, when the church became a cathedral again. On 27 July 2021 UNESCO added the convent and cathedral complex to the World Heritage listing of the earliest 16th-century monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl.

The façade is plain cut stone, as Franciscan work tended to be, with a round arch, an alfiz framed by a carved Franciscan cord and a tall choir window between slender Gothic-looking columns. Inside, the single nave has a Mudéjar coffered ceiling of cedar, one of the few of its kind left in the Americas. Side chapels were added for Tlaxcalan worshippers: one for the Cristo de Centli, a 16th-century figure made of maize paste; a Guadalupe chapel of 1664 with Solomonic columns and a medallion grille; one holding a 19th-century organ; and the Third Order chapel, now the sagrario (the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament), with the pulpit inscribed as the place where the Gospel was first preached in the New World. The 17th-century high altar to the Assumption holds eleven canvases, the top centre one showing the baptism of the four lords of Tlaxcala, and the stone font where tradition says they were baptised is still in the church.

Outside, the whole complex is worth walking round. A three-arched arcade leads into the convent, with a walkway on top running to the bell tower, which stands apart from the church and is about 29 m tall plus its small dome. Below, beside the Jorge "El Ranchero" Aguilar bullring, is the open chapel of the Rosary, opened at Easter 1539, with a half-hexagon plan and three Moorish-looking arches. A posa chapel in the upper atrium has reliefs of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic receiving the stigmata.