Source:WTL photo in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Mexico, D.F.
Image : The Templo de Santiago (Church of St. James).
Comments: This church was designed and begun in 1609. It was built using stones from the tlatelolca ruins surrounding. The residents of this neighborhood (colonia) were Aztec nobles, to whom the Spaniards had assigned this area. Planting the church squarely in the center of the community speaks directly to the major conversion effort undertaken by the first century of Spanish conquistadors and colonists. The church's exterior architectural simplicity and severity recall late Renaissance Herrerian Spanish style.