In the heart of Oaxaca City, behind a stone facade the color of old bone, is one of the most extravagant church interiors anywhere in the Americas. We’ve walked through it more than once over the years, and it still stops us every time.
The Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán was started by Dominican friars in 1572. It took the better part of four decades before it was formally dedicated in 1608 — and even then, the building wasn’t finished. Its richest addition, the Rosario Chapel, wasn’t begun until 1724, more than 150 years after the first stone went in.
It Wasn’t Always a Church
The building’s history isn’t a straight line from construction to congregation. Through much of the 1800s, during Mexico’s wars and internal conflicts, the complex was occupied by whichever faction controlled Oaxaca at the time. By 1859 it had been formally converted to military use, and by 1866 Catholic worship here was suspended altogether. It wasn’t returned to the Church until 1902, under President Porfirio Díaz, and restoration took decades after that.
Walking In
None of that turmoil shows on the inside. Step through the doors and the nave is covered almost floor to ceiling in gold leaf — walls, arches, the vaulted ceiling, the retablo behind the altar. It’s Baroque decoration taken about as far as it can go, and photographs genuinely undersell it. The side chapels get the same treatment: gilded canopies, carved saints in niches, centuries of devotion layered on in gold leaf.
Outside, the twin bell towers and tiled domes form one of the most photographed skylines in Oaxaca. The plaza in front draws street painters working the same view over and over, along with tourists and locals just cutting through on their way somewhere else.
Visiting
It’s free to enter, no ticket required. The adjoining former convent now houses the Regional Museum of Oaxaca, worth an hour on its own, and the old monastery garden behind it has been replanted as an ethnobotanical garden. Dress reasonably modestly if you’re going inside — it’s a working church, not a museum piece.
Getting There
Oaxaca City sits inland in the southern highlands. Coming from Mexico City, it’s a 5 to 6 hour drive on the toll autopista through Puebla. Coming up from the coast at Huatulco, you’ve got a choice: a newer toll road that cuts the trip down considerably, or the old Highway 175 through the mountains — slower, winding, and genuinely beautiful, with mountain towns like San José del Pacífico worth a coffee stop along the way. Either way, once you’re in the historic center, Santo Domingo is a walk, not a drive.
The Video
Photography by Bill Bell:
Four and a half centuries of construction, war, secularization, and restoration, and what’s left standing is one of the most over-the-top church interiors you’ll find anywhere in Mexico. If you’ve stood inside it yourself, we’d love to hear what struck you most.
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