Architecture from colonial times coexists with Tepoztlán’s characteristic pre-Hispanic remains. If you wander down the streets you will see various types of buildings with remarkable architectural features.

For example, the Templo y Convento de la Natividad (the town’s main church and adjoining monastery) was built in the mid-16th century by the local indigenous population using carved stones with lime mortar, sand, and vegetable materials.

The other architecture in the town itself is also unique; traditional dwellings are called jacales which are built with corn stalks or tall otate canes and covered with a straw thatched roof; adobe houses with domed clay roofs, horizontal morrillo beams and otate supporting structures; as well as brick and stone houses with various types of roof – from the standard pitched roof, to the most conventional and modernist styles imaginable. This variety shows that Tepoztlán is a fertile environment for those wishing to restore architecture or create new styles.