San Gabriel Convent

Large 16th-century Franciscan complex facing Cholula's main plaza.

The San Gabriel Convent is one of Cholula's great colonial buildings, a broad Franciscan complex built soon after the conquest. Its scale is striking: church, atrium, arcades, and chapels arranged beside the main plaza.

It is especially good for understanding Cholula as more than the pyramid. The convent shows how quickly the colonial city was imposed beside the older sacred landscape.

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