Mexico City - Santiago de Tlatelolco

In the centre of the park-like Square of the Three Cultures stands the church of Santiago de Tlatelolco, in unadorned Baroque style. The present church (rather unhappily restored) was built at the beginning of the 17th c. on the site of a small chapel of 1535 belonging to the Franciscan convent of Santiago. Adjoining the church is one of the old conventual buildings, formerly the Colegio Imperial de Santa Cruz, in which the Franciscans taught the gifted sons of the Aztec nobility. One of the most notable teachers was Bernardino de Sahagún, the great chronicler of the history of New Spain.