"Desierto de los Leones" National Park Mexico City; 
Ex-Convento Santo Desierto del Carmen
convent
Shutterstock ID 2054551526; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

JorgePM/Shutterstock

Ex-Convento Santo Desierto del Carmen

Mexico City


This weathered 17th-century former Carmelite monastery within the Parque Nacional Desierto de Los Leones provides an interesting glimpse of what it would have been like to live here and roam the halls of the micro-town while connected to nature. The monastery has been remodelled with exhibition halls and a restaurant. Tours in Spanish are run by guides (garbed in cassock and sandals) who lead you through expansive gardens around the buildings and the patios within, as well as some underground passageways.

Camiones to the ex-convento depart from Paradero las Palmas in San Ángel or from metro Viveros (in front of the 7-Eleven) hourly on Saturday and Sunday until 3:30pm.

There are small restaurants on the approach to the Ex-Convento.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Mexico City attractions

1. Parque Nacional Desierto de los Leones

0.7 MILES

Cool, fragrant pine and oak forests dominate this 20-sq-km national park in the hills surrounding the Valle de México. Around 23km southwest of Mexico…

4. Plaza San Jacinto

7.98 MILES

Every Saturday the Bazaar Sábado brings masses of color and crowds of people to this San Ángel square, 500m west of Avenida Insurgentes. Museo Casa del…

5. Museo Casa del Risco

8.01 MILES

Inside the courtyard of this museum, midway along Plaza San Jacinto’s north side, is an elaborate fountain, a mad mosaic of Talavera tile and Chinese…

6. Museo de El Carmen

8.16 MILES

A storehouse of magnificent sacred art in a former school run by the Carmelite order. The collection includes oils by Mexican master Cristóbal de…

7. MUAC

8.17 MILES

Designed by veteran architect Teodoro González de León, the contemporary art museum's sloping, minimalist-style glass facade stands in stark contrast to…

8. Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil

8.19 MILES

One of the city’s first contemporary-art spaces, this San Ángel museum was founded by Yucatecan businessman Álvaro Carrillo Gil to store a large…