Convent of San Francisco, Madero Street, Mexico City

The Convent of San Francisco (historically known in Spanish as the 'Convento Grande de San Francisco') is located at the western end of Madero Street in the historic center of Mexico City, near the Torre Latinoamericana and is all that remains of the church and monastery complex. This complex was the headquarters of the first twelve Franciscan friars headed by Martín de Valencia who came to Mexico after receiving the first authorization from the Pope to evangelize in New Spain. In the early colonial period, this was one of the largest and most influential monasteries in Mexico City. It was built on the site of where Moctezuma II’s zoo once was. At its peak, the church and monastery covered the blocks now bordered by Bolivar, Madero, Eje Central and Venustiano Carranza Streets, for a total area of 32,224 square metres (3.2 ha, 8.0 acres). In the patio of the first cloister, there was a cross that was reputedly taller than the highest tower in the city and made from a cypress tree from the “Chapultepec Forest”, meaning the forested area to the west of the Zocalo, where San Francisco was built. The church and monastery saw a number of historic events in its time. A funeral mass for Hernán Cortés was here when it was thought that he died in Central America. In 1629, the Marquis of Gelves arrived in disguise to hide after quarreling with the archbishop. In 1692, the Count of Galve

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).