Built between 1760 and 1768, the Mision Sanata María was the last of the five Sierra Gorda missions to be built and today dominates the small town of Landa de Matamoros on Hwy 120 between Jalpan and Xilitla. Its facade is the most elaborate of the five missions, and is notable for some of the characters depicted having indigenous facial features.
Misión Santa María del Agua de Landa
Northern Central Highlands
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
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Nearby Northern Central Highlands attractions
1. Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra Gorda
7.88 MILES
The Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra Gorda, in the rugged Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range, covers a huge swath of the northeastern third of Querétaro…
2. Misión San Francisco del Valle de Tilaco
8.52 MILES
Dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, this fine mission church in the village of Tilaco was built between 1754 and 1762 and has an impressive façade and bell…
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Constructed by Franciscan monks and their indigenous converts in the 1750s, the original of the five missions in the Sierra Gorda is in the middle of the…
4. Misión Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol
14.83 MILES
This was the second of the five missions to be built and was completed in 1767 by Juan Ramos de Lora. It is devoted to Our Lady of the Light, a sculpture…
25.45 MILES
British-born but Mexican at heart, Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) was one of the last surrealist artists and a key player in the Mexican women's…
25.56 MILES
Take a wealthy English eccentric, an idyllic tract of Mexican jungle and an extremely hyperactive imagination, and you’d still struggle to come up with…
27.06 MILES
Completed in 1754, this attractive church is the smallest of the Sierra Gorda Missions, but has a delightful setting in the rather charming village of…
29.79 MILES
This huge jungle-fringed sinkhole is home to tens of thousands of swifts as well as many green parrots, and at dawn and dusk they surge in or out of the…