Iglesia de San Francisco

This convent holds first place among all the houses in the Province, for having been the first to be founded in 1550 when the religious arrived from Spain who came to formally organize the presence of the Franciscan Order in the New Kingdom of Granada. For this reason it is known as "the Maximum Convent". But it is also called "Convent of Purification" because this is its owner.

The first headquarters that it had was in the place that today is known as the Parroquia de las Nieves, in the seventh race, for a very short time. Then it was on the same site that is currently occupied by the church of San Agustín. But in 1557 they moved to the current location, to the houses donated to them by Archbishop Fray Juan de los Barrios, also a Franciscan, who he bought from the merchant Juan Muñoz de Collantes. Here they dedicated themselves to building the convent, which came to have two blocks. The Provincial Curia had its headquarters in this convent until the end of 1861 when the decree of extinction of the religious communities in Nueva Granada left the friars without legitimacy. The convent thought of being used as a public prison, but the idea having not prospered, in 1862 the governorship of Cundinamarca was installed.

Due to the tremors of August 1917, the government building suffered serious damage, for which it was demolished. This gave rise to the construction of the current Government Palace, which began in 1918 and ended in 1933, in accordance with the plans made by the French architect Gastón Lelarge.

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Address: Av Jimenez de Quesada #7-10, Bogotá, Colombia
Phone: +57 13412357

Opening hours: Mon to Fri - 6:30 am to 10:30 pm, Sat - 4 to 6:30 pm, Sun - 4:30 to 7:30 pm

Website: www.templodesanfrancisco.com