A VISIT TO THE EX-CONVENTO AND CHURCH DE LOS AGUSTINOS IN YURIRIA

I took a day excursion to visit the church and ex-convent in Yuriria a town about an hour and a half from San Miguel.  The complex is one of the oldest of the colonial era, built over a nine year period of 1550-59 by indigenous workers under the order of the Augustinian Fray Diego de Chavez y Alvarado.  It is immense and fortress like;  the fortress-like aspect was in fact functional;  the settlers had to defend themselves against the Chichimeca tribes. (understandably not happy about the invaders!)

This bannister of made of mesquite.  It has been polished by hands over the centuries and feels like marble

painted bannister on the right

upstairs corridor lined by cells

view from a cell window

the communal toilets

crazy thinking about why they needed to all be in there at one time!

a magnificent but dead variety of cypress under which we had a mescal break!

CHURCH OR FORTRESS?