Plaza de Santo Domingo

Plaza de Santo Domingo Review

The Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc built a palace here, where heretics were later burned at the stake during the Spanish Inquisition. The plaza was the intellectual hub of the city during the colonial era. Today its most endearing feature is the Portal de los Evangelistas, whose arcades are filled with scribes at old-fashioned typewriters filling in official forms, formatting theses, printing invitations, or composing letters. In the past, people who didn't know how to write came here for a little help. While there are still those, there are also the people who desire to keep traditions alive. At Christmastime especially, people come to have greeting cards personalized—with their greeting on the inside and return address printed on the envelopes.

The 18th-century baroque Santo Domingo church, slightly north of the portal, is all that remains of the first Dominican convent in New Spain. The convent building was demolished in 1861 under the Reform laws that forced clerics to turn over all religious buildings not used for worship to the government.