church

The artist carefully illustrated Mecatepec's church, visually describing it as a masonry structure surmounted by a single bell tower and fronted by a arched portal. The stone crenelations that decorate the structure's roof line suggest its sixteenth-century construction, as this style was most commonly used in the first fifty years of colonization. The crenelations give the church a militaristic appearance, causing this structure to be classified as an early colonial "fortress monastery."