The Dominicans founded the first convent in Popayán and built the original Iglesia de Santo Domingo out of mud and straw in 1552, but due to Popayán’s many earthquakes the church has been damaged and reconstructed multiple times. It was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 2 February 1736. The reconstruction of the church was financed by the Arboleda family and was directed by the Santa Fe architect Gregorio Causí who designed the church in a Spanish baroque style. The church was restored after it suffered some structural damage in the earthquake in 1983. Causí resorted to an octagonal tower over a square base and a stone portal whose design combines Renaissance and Mannerist features. The entire altar is made of cedar wood; it was carved by Camilo Guevara. The gold leaf and oil paint work was applied by the Quito artist Pedro Tello and his students José Antonio Rojas Rengifo and José Caicedo. The pulpit was designed in the first half of the 19th by the local artist Francisco José de Caldas and gilded and painted by José Caicedo. The first organ of this church was brought from Seville, Spain, in 1848. Like the church, the monastery and this cloister were built by the community of Dominicans in the middle of the 16th century. The earthquake of 1736 destroyed the monastery, and it was rebuild in the form we know it today in the subsequent decade. The building complex has been used by the Universidad del Cauca since 1932.