Santo Domingo Cultural Center and Regional Museum
Santo Domingo Convent
Located on Calle Alcalá, Oaxaca City
Next to the Temple of Santo Domingo on the corner of Alcalá and Cinco de Mayo streets in the city of Oaxaca, lies the Ex-Convent of Santo Domingo, now home to the Centro Cultural Santo Domingo housing the Regional Museum. The massive structure of this 16th C. convent is flanked by the Temple of Santo Domingo, the entrance plaza and an extensive desert botanical garden presently under construction.
Long hallways, some stark and shiny with centuries of thick white paint, others decorated by frescos and other elaborate ornamentation, lead the visitor past cell after cell which have been converted into display rooms for an enormous collection of pre-colombian and colonial artifacts from the area, as well as exhibits of popular indigenous culture.
Treasures from Monte Alban Tomb 7
In each room are computer display screens, rather than guides, that walk you through each exhibit, providing additional information.
From a number of vantage points along the hallways one can look out onto the botanical gardens replete with cacti and desert succulents, across to the domes and steeples of the Church or down into the wide, stone and column-lined courtyards of the Convent.
One of the most interesting displays within the Regional Museum is that of the treasures of Monte Alban’s Tomb 7, discovered by archaeologist Alfonso Caso, which includes a rich collection of jewellry, crystal, bone and clay artifacts.
The convent and museum is open to the public from Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.
Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent, 1752-1863
Convent Life in Colonial Mexico: A Tale of Two Communities
Originally posted 2009-08-14 15:03:50.
