The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven was begun in the 16th century on the major Aztec holy site and took nearly three centuries to complete. The sacristy, a mix of Renaissance and Gothic, is the oldest surviving part of the church. Cortez is said to have laid the cathedral's first stone, re-purposed from an Aztec temple. The largest and oldest cathedral in Latin America, it is the seat of the Mexican archdiocese.