The high Toluca Valley, across the sierra west of Mexico City,
was evangelized by the Franciscan order in the 1520s. During the
1550s and 1560s the area became the focus of an intense program
of mission construction to build out a network of visitas and
conventos linked to the main provincial monastery in the city of
Toluca, where the friars studied the languages and customs of
the various valley peoples - Otomís, Nahuas and Matlatzincas.
mother house in Toluca has been largely destroyed, several of
still stand, in varying states of repair. Of these, the early
Franciscan convento at Zinacantépec ("Bat Mountain") some 7 kms
southwest of Toluca, is the best preserved, a living museum of
the history of colonial art and architecture in Mexico and the
valley region. The Open Chapel The mission was founded in the
1550s as a humblevisita of the Toluca monastery. Its first
permanent structure was the open chapel, still preserved in the
porteria, or front arcade of the convento and cloister, which
were added in the 15