The Cathedral of the Assumption in Cuernavaca is one of the oldest Christian churches in the Americas, founded in 1529 by Franciscan missionaries. The building has the fortified, fortress-like appearance common to early colonial churches in Mexico — thick walls, battlements, and few windows — because the Spanish needed structures that could serve as refuges as well as places of worship. The atrium in front is enormous, intended to hold the large indigenous congregations converted in the early colonial period.
Inside, faded 16th-century frescoes depicting the martyrdom of Japanese Christians — painted by indigenous artists using pre-Columbian techniques — were discovered beneath whitewash in the 1950s. They are unique: early colonial art painted from a Japanese-Mexican perspective and long deliberately concealed. The cathedral complex also includes the smaller Capilla Abierta (open-air chapel) and the Chapel of the Third Order.