Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji and Former college of San Francisco Javier in
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
126 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 47
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
126 km from Tepeji del Río de Ocampo to Tepeji del Río de Ocampo, about 1 h 47 of riding. It goes by way of Bridge of Atongo, Former college of San Francisco Javier in and back through Bridge of Atongo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji
Tepeji del Río is a busy town in the state of Hidalgo, on the old road north from Mexico City, and at its heart stands a sixteenth-century Franciscan convent, one of the many fortress-like monasteries built by the friars in the first decades after the Spanish conquest to evangelise the indigenous population. The church has a sober façade, a large open atrium where crowds of converts once gathered for mass, and a cloister with traces of mural paintings. The convent stands on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of that route. Like many of these early convents, it combines European Gothic and Renaissance forms with the work of indigenous craftsmen, whose hand can be seen in the carvings and paintings.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji is where the day begins. Next is Bridge of Atongo.
2. Bridge of Atongo
Silver came out of the mountains of the north, and everything else came back the other way: wine, cloth, tools, tobacco and soldiers. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the road that carried it all, running from Mexico City to Santa Fe, and it opened in the late sixteenth century and remained in use for roughly three hundred years. It crossed rivers and ravines, and where it did, the Spanish built bridges, a number of which have survived. The bridge of Atongo is one of the stone bridges along the road in the state of Mexico, close to Jilotepec.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bridge of Atongo comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Former college of San Francisco Javier in.
3. Former college of San Francisco Javier in
Tepotzotlán is a Pueblo Mágico just off the highway north of Mexico City, and its heart is a building that stops you in your tracks. The old Jesuit college of San Francisco Javier was a training centre for the order in New Spain, a place where novices learned theology and native languages before being sent out across the colony. When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767 the college passed to others, and today it houses the National Museum of the Viceroyalty, one of the best collections of colonial art in the country. It also forms part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the silver road that ran north from the capital towards Santa Fe, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010.