Convento y Templo de Santa Catalina
("Convent and Church of St Catherine") See the first convent in the City of Angels.
3 Norte and 2 Poniente
This convent has the honor of being the oldest in Puebla and was the first one that Dominican nuns, in accordance with their Order, set up and ran in the colony. These alone are no mean feat, but we must also point out that the person who led its establishment was also a woman, Doña María de la Cruz Montenegro, a benefactor without whose patronage the construction of this convent and its church never would have happened. Since the 17th century it had many changes in appearance and wasn't completed until 1750. The church has a single nave, its facade a pair of doors with eight buttresses. The bell tower, by contrast, accentuates the beauty of the complex. Designed with one single structure, it breaks with the old decorative restrictions with a splendid covering of bricks and tiles.The interior is spectacular: golden baroque altarpieces abound, framing the main altar whose altarpiece, like those in most Puebla churches, is in the neoclassical style.
Don't miss the the incredible wood carving on the columns of the baroque altars! These "twisted" columns are called Solomonic columns.
This convent has the honor of being the oldest in Puebla and was the first one that Dominican nuns, in accordance with their Order, set up and ran in the colony. These alone are no mean feat, but we must also point out that the person who led its establishment was also a woman, Doña María de la Cruz Montenegro, a benefactor without whose patronage the construction of this convent and its church never would have happened. Since the 17th century it had many changes in appearance and wasn't completed until 1750. The church has a single nave, its facade a pair of doors with eight buttresses. The bell tower, by contrast, accentuates the beauty of the complex. Designed with one single structure, it breaks with the old decorative restrictions with a splendid covering of bricks and tiles.The interior is spectacular: golden baroque altarpieces abound, framing the main altar whose altarpiece, like those in most Puebla churches, is in the neoclassical style.