Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol and San Miguel Concá
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
187 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 20
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.
The stops in between: Santa María del Agua de Landa, San Miguel Concá and back through Santa María del Agua de Landa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol
Tancoyol is one of the last of the Sierra Gorda missions to be built, and it is perhaps the one that feels most remote. The church of Nuestra Señora de la Luz stands in a small village in the valley of the Santa María river, in the north of Querétaro, with a tall, intricate facade covered with plaster figures, flowers and symbols, a combination of European baroque and the imagination of the Pame people who helped to build it. UNESCO listed the five Sierra Gorda missions together in 2003, and Tancoyol is the quietest of them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol is where the day begins. Next is Santa María del Agua de Landa.
2. Santa María del Agua de Landa
High in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro, Franciscan missionaries led by Junípero Serra in the mid eighteenth century built five mission churches, and their facades are an explosion of carved and painted plaster: angels, saints, flowers, fruit, mermaids and symbols that blend Catholic imagery with the local indigenous world. The mission of Santa María del Agua de Landa, in the village of Landa de Matamoros, has one of the most elaborate facades, glowing in pink and ochre. The five missions were listed together as a World Heritage Site in 2003. Serra went on to found the missions of California.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Santa María del Agua de Landa comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is San Miguel Concá.
3. San Miguel Concá
The five Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda are a very odd thing to find in the Mexican mountains: grand baroque churches, painted in pinks and yellows and covered in stone carvings, set in villages that are otherwise made of low houses and cornfields. San Miguel Conca is one of them. Father Junipero Serra, who would later found the missions of California, led the work here in the 1750s with the help of the local Pame people, and the facade of the church shows the mix of cultures that built it, with saints and angels carved beside local plants, mermaids and faces that look more indigenous than European. All five missions were listed as a World Heritage site in 2003.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol to Santa María del Agua de Landa
Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol → Santa María del Agua de Landa is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Santa María del Agua de Landa to San Miguel Concá
Santa María del Agua de Landa → San Miguel Concá is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Miguel Concá to back through Santa María del Agua de Landa
San Miguel Concá → back through Santa María del Agua de Landa is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Santa María del Agua de Landa to Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol
back through Santa María del Agua de Landa → Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.