SAN JOSÉ CONETA CONVENT
The remains of this extinct town are located 45 km from Comitán. According to colonial records, it must have been founded before 1596 –it appears attached to the parish of Comitán from the 16th century–, and its inhabitants, at least in part, were speakers of the Coxoh language. As happened in other places in the lowlands, epidemics surely led to the depopulation of the site, perhaps in the early 18th century.
The outstanding feature of Coneta is the magnificent ruins of its church, dating from the second half of the 17th century. It is a single-nave building with an extraordinary facade that makes it one of the greatest monuments of colonial Chiapas art. The importance of this building lies in the singular expressions produced by local artists in a remote town of colonial Chiapas. Its layered decoration has no parallel anywhere else in the state; its architectural forms do not resemble any other known ones, although the memory of pre-Hispanic forms lingers within them.
One of the five oldest churches in Chiapas, it was founded in 1500 near what is now the border with Guatemala. As the town became depopulated around 1800, the church stands in a state of semi-abandonment; even by 1839, when John Stephens visited it, it had already lost its roof. Nevertheless, its facade is typical of Mexican and Central American colonial art, and it features many unique designs that make it well worth a visit.
The outstanding feature of Coneta is the magnificent ruins of its church, dating from the second half of the 17th century. It is a single-nave building with an extraordinary facade that makes it one of the greatest monuments of colonial Chiapas art. The importance of this building lies in the singular expressions produced by local artists in a remote town of colonial Chiapas. Its layered decoration has no parallel anywhere else in the state; its architectural forms do not resemble any other known ones, although the memory of pre-Hispanic forms lingers within them.
One of the five oldest churches in Chiapas, it was founded in 1500 near what is now the border with Guatemala. As the town became depopulated around 1800, the church stands in a state of semi-abandonment; even by 1839, when John Stephens visited it, it had already lost its roof. Nevertheless, its facade is typical of Mexican and Central American colonial art, and it features many unique designs that make it well worth a visit.
