Convento de San Bernardino de Siena, Valladolid

Convento de San Bernardino de Siena, Valladolid tickets: which one to buy

The convent stands at the southern edge of Valladolid, a colonial town in the middle of Yucatan about two hours from Merida and forty minutes from Chichen Itza, and it is one of the standard stops on the tours that link those two. Entry to the church is free and a small charge applies to the cloister and garden. Almost all organised visits arrive as part of a long day trip that also covers a cenote for swimming and the ruins, which leaves twenty minutes here.

Staying in Valladolid overnight is the better plan: the town is pleasant, cheap and far quieter than the coast, and it puts you at the ruins for opening time. A light and sound show is projected onto the convent front on most evenings and is free to watch from the square. Guides wait at the gate in the afternoon and work in Spanish and basic English.

Visiting Convento de San Bernardino de Siena, Valladolid: what to see

The Franciscans built the convent in the middle of the sixteenth century, within a generation of the conquest of the peninsula, and it is one of the oldest in the Americas. Like the other early foundations here it was built to double as a fortress, with high blank walls, a battlemented parapet and a broad open chapel where large numbers of Maya converts could be addressed in the open air. The stone came from dismantled Maya buildings.

Inside, the church is plain, whitewashed and very high, with a carved wooden altarpiece and a few surviving colonial paintings. The cloister is the pleasure of the visit, arcaded on two levels around a garden with a well; a cenote lies directly beneath the complex, which is why the site was chosen, and water was drawn from it through the convent's own shaft. A row of carved stone gargoyles runs along the parapet and drains the flat roof of the nave.

Convento de San Bernardino de Siena, Valladolid opening hours and the best time to go

Yucatan is hot all year and hottest from April to June, when the middle of the day is for indoors. The rainy season runs from June to October with short heavy storms in the afternoon. Mornings are the time to walk the town. The evening projection on the convent front runs after dark and draws families from the square; it is short and worth catching.

The street leading from the convent to the main square is closed to traffic and lit at night. Day of the Dead at the start of November is marked here with particular intensity and the cemeteries and churches are full. Allow half an hour for the convent, and considerably longer if you swim in the cenote in the middle of town. Buses from Merida and Cancun stop a few blocks away and run through the day.