The Church and Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán () in the city of Oaxaca de Juárez (Mexico) is an example of New Spanish Baroque architecture. The first construction projects for the building date back to 1551, when the Antequera de Oaxaca's City Council ceded a total of twenty-four lots to the Dominican Order for the construction of a convent in the city. However, it was not until 1608 that the conventual complex of Santo Domingo was inaugurated, still unfinished. Throughout its history, the Convent of Santo Domingo has been the scene of several important events in the history of Mexico: it was converted into a military warehouse, a stable, closed to Catholic worship in times of Jacobin secularism of the governments emanating from the Reform War, and then returned again to the Church by agreement of Porfirio Díaz. In 1979 it received the visit of the Catholic pontiff John Paul II, and was later declared —along with the entire Historic Center of Oaxaca— a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. History The first Dominicans arrived in Oaxaca at the end of 1528. More or less at the same time, the site of the indigenous town of Huaxyacac was erected in Villa de Antequera, by decree of King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Later, in 1551, the town council granted the Dominicans some land located in the vicinity of the Cerro del Fortín hill for the purpose of building a convent. Although the original agreement committed the Dominican order to complete the works within a period of no more than twenty years, in 1572 the construction had not advanced too much. After some negotiations, the City Council extended the term for thirty more years, in exchange for the Dominicans supporting the financing of the drinking water supply works for the city. In the following thirty years, the construction of the building continued with its ups and downs, due to the fact that the Order did not have sufficient financial resources. Two earthquakes at the beginning of the 17th century (the first, in 1603, and the second, in 1604) destroyed the Convent of San Pablo of Oaxaca, a fact that motivated the acceleration of the works of Santo Domingo. Four years later, the convent complex was formally inaugurated, and in 1623 the establishment was elevated to the category of university, where philosophy and theology courses were taught. The final works of the