• INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • INAH - DMC / Mauricio Marat
    INAH - DMC / Mauricio Marat
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • Mauricio Marat
    Mauricio Marat
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • Pasillo, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
    Pasillo, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
  • Murales, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
    Murales, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
  • Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
    Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
  • INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
    INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
This museum—housed in a large Augustinian construction built near Teotihuacan in a Plateresque and Gothic style, dating back to 1539—has an invaluable set of very early murals and impressive cloisters. The collection includes pre-Hispanic objects, as well as religious paintings and sculptures from the viceregal period.
About the museum

This former Augustinian monastery, where construction began in 1539, is notable for its facade in the finest Plateresque style, as well as for its murals, the earliest to have been painted in Latin America. After painstaking conservation work, the complex was converted into a museum in 1921. Until 1992 it contained sculptures and paintings related to Catholicism, books from the church’s collection, pre-Hispanic objects and architectural features rescued after the building had suffered serious flooding, as well as works taken from other monasteries. In 1992, an exhibition was held on historical and significant works of art in selected areas of the former monastery: in the kitchens, the room adjoining the refectory, and the refectory itself. In 2000, a monk’s cell was included as part of the exhibition design, together with a gallery of notable Augustinians, and 2012 saw the completion of one of the phases of restoration along with a new exhibition brief.

Collections are not yet on show, although visitors can still explore the beautiful building. The ground floor houses the pilgrims’ entrance, gatehouse, kitchen, refectory, room adjoining the refectory, the “De profundis” hall and the large and small cloisters; visitors to the top floor will find areas such as the monks’ cells, the west gallery, the large and small cloisters, the chapter house, the elevated open-air chapel and library.

The church—open to worshippers—has an atrial cross carved in the Tequitqui style (a form of Christian art practiced by the indigenous people shortly after the Conquest). Some important figures—bishops, cardinals, friars, as well as Old Testament prophets and saints wearing Augustinian habits—are all represented at the apse, with its Gothic ribbing. Other outstanding features include a Solomonic Baroque, golden, wood-painted altarpiece, depictions of scenes related to the birth of Jesus, an eighteenth-century virgin, scenes from the Passion of Christ, and some remarkable frescos and friezes illustrating psalms and words of Augustinian philosophy.

The former Augustinian monastery has had a tumultuous history. Twice during the seventeenth century and once again in the eighteenth, three storms caused the waters of Lago Texcoco and the Presa del Rey to overflow and flood the church, engulfing the ground floor in water and mud. Following the loss of their religious works and archives, the religious order abandoned the property. However, the secular clergy reoccupied it in the mid-nineteenth century, despite it still lying under a layer of mud.

Mexico’s national heritage monument department (Inspección General de Monumentos Artísticos e Históricos) decided to rescue the building in 1920, and by 1921 it was already being used as a museum. The top floor, having escaped the ravages of the flooding, was in a suitable condition for displaying sculptures.

In the mid-twentieth century, restoration work on the former monastery was completed after the dredging work was finished and some parts of the ruins restored.

March 1921
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INAH-FN
Facade of the Former Monastery of San Agustín Acolman
Pintura_religiosa_en_convento_de_San_Agustin_en_Acolman
INAH-Acervo Culhuacán
Religious painting in the Former Monastery of San Agustín Acolman
Fachada_del_Ex-convento_de_San_Agustin_Acolman
INAH-FN/Acervo Felipe Teixidor
Facade of the Former Monastery of San Agustín Acolman
Pasillo_del_convento_de_San_Agustin_en_Acolman
INAH-Acervo Culhuacán
Passageway in the Former Monastery of San Agustín Acolman
Acolman,_Mex_Ex-convento_de_San_Agustin_Uno_de_los_salones_totalmente_reconstruido
INAH-Acervo Culhuacán
Former Monastery of San Agustín Acolman. One of the fully-restored rooms.
Fachada_del_Convento_de_Acolman
INAH-FN/Acervo Felipe Teixidor
Facade of the Former Monastery of Acolman
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INAH-FN
Interior of the Former Monastery of Acolman
An expert point of view
Elena González Colín
Elena González Colín
Museo Virreinal de Acolman
Practical information
Monday to Sunday from 09:00 to 17:30 hrs

$75.00 pesos

  • Sundays free for Mexican citizens
  • Free entrance for Mexicans under 13 years old
  • Free entrance for Mexican students and teachers
  • Free entry for seniors
  • pensioners and retirees with ID
  • No Smoking
  • No entry with food
  • Pets not allowed
Calzada de los Agustinos s/n, colonia San Agustín de Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl, 55870, Acolman de Nezahualcóyotl, Acolman, México.

From Mexico City take the Mexico-Pirámides highway until the exit for Acolman. Or, from the north of Mexico City, take the Texcoco-Lechería highway until the turn off for Tepexpan, where it joins the Mexico-Pirámides highway.


Services
  • Accesibilidad
  • Estacionamiento
  • Sanitarios
  • Visitas guiadas
GUIDE
Guía
  • +52 (594) 957 1644
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Directory
Jefa del Depto. Museo Ex Convento de Acolman
Elena González
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+52 (594) 594 1040 140
Área de Gestoría del Patrimonio Cultural
Sara Carrasco Tovar
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+52 (594) 9571 644
Área de Comunicación Educativa
Arturo Alonso Galicia, Guillermo Mena Méndez, Gabriel Valencia Valencia
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+52 (594) 9571 644
Área de Promoción Cultural
Rosa Peña Sánchez, Armando Rosas Rosales
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+52 (594) 9571 644
Área de Museografía
José de Jesús Nicolás
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+52 (594) 9571 644
Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
10141
2017
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Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
2016
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Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
2013
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Museo Virreinal, Ex Convento de Acolman
06_MV_Acolman2022_ES.pdf
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INAH - DMC / Mauricio Marat
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INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
Former Monastery of Acolman, State of Mexico
Acolman-1
INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
Former Monastery of Acolman, State of Mexico
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Mauricio Marat
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INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
Museo-Virreinal-Acolman-37
INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
Former Monastery of Acolman, State of Mexico
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Pasillo, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
Passageway, Former Monastery of Acolman
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INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
MAU_3326_copy
Murales, Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
Murals, Former Monastery of Acolman
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Ex convento Acolman, Edo. México. DMC-INAH/ Mauricio Marat
Former Monastery of Acolman
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INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo
19.6310512,-98.9145333
Texto © CONACULTA.INAH.Museo Virreinal de Acolman CNME Imágenes © CONACULTA.INAH.Dirección de Medios.Mauricio Marat © CONACULTA.INAH.Fototeca CNME.Gliserio Castañeda
Centro INAH Estado de México
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INAH-Mediateca/Teresa Galindo

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