
Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco
Colonial monastery cloister of centuries-old trees, fountain koi and turtles, and roaming peacocks.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco in Santiago traces the monastery back to Pedro de Valdivia's 1541 founding of the city and the carved Virgin he credited with saving his men. You'll hear how a string of earthquakes, starting in 1583, kept tearing down the church and its bell tower over four centuries, and how the cloister behind it grew into a garden of centuries-old trees, koi, turtles and peacocks. A cycle of Cusco-workshop paintings from the 1670s and 80s hangs inside the galleries.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Church of San Francisco
Oldest surviving colonial church and convent museum, home to centuries-old religious art.
Basilica de la Merced
Baroque church raised by a Catholic order once sworn to trade their own freedom for captives.
Santo Domingo Church
Colonial stone church engineered to survive earthquakes, crowned by twin brick-and-stucco towers.
Church of St. Augustine, Augustinians
Colonial church housing a carved Christ whose shifted crown survived a devastating earthquake.
Museo la Merced
Convent museum of colonial religious art with a rare, undeciphered rongorongo tablet.
Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago
Fifth cathedral on its site, rebuilt after fire and earthquakes with a neoclassical stone facade and gilded baroque interior.