Plaza de Santo Domingo

In front of you opens the Plaza de Santo Domingo, the second most important square in the Historic Centre and, for many, the most authentic. For three centuries it was, after the main square, the great administrative stage of New Spain: taxes were collected here, heresies were tried here and letters were written to order.

1A convent, a customs house and a tribunal

The square takes its name from the Dominican convent; the friars arrived in the city in 1526. Of the vast convent complex, what survives above all is the church of Santo Domingo, with its baroque façade, completed in 1736. On the east side stands the old Customs House, where duties were paid on goods entering the capital; today it is part of the historic headquarters of the Ministry of Public Education, whose courtyards hold murals by Diego Rivera. On the north-east corner you'll see the palace that housed the Tribunal of the Holy Office, established in Mexico in 1571.

2The "evangelists"

Under the arches on the west side, the Portal de Santo Domingo, worked the so-called "evangelists": scribes who wrote love letters, petitions and official papers for people who could not write. The trade has changed, but the arcade is still lined with small print shops turning out invitations, cards and forms in full view of passers-by.

Within a few yards, faith, taxes and censorship stood side by side: the three pillars of colonial power.

In the centre, a fountain with the statue of Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, the Corregidora of Querétaro, honours one of the conspirators who made the uprising of 1810 possible.

3What to look for

• The arches of the arcade, where the print shops still line up.
• The cut-off corner of the Inquisition palace, with its diagonal doorway.
• The façade of the church of Santo Domingo, combining grey stone and red tezontle.