The Convent of Santa Catalina was amazing! I had been to another convent in Cochabamba, Boliva but nothing could have prepared me for this. The convent takes up two blocks and inside the 10 foot walls is almost like a miniature city! Nuns still live there and are in a modern building, separate from the museum.
We had a very nice guide and she gave us loads of information. The first room we saw was the "Locutorio", which means place where there is a phone. The nuns did NOT have phones but their families could pay visits to them and talk through two sets of wooden bars. That meant; a. they couldn't touch each other, and b. they couldn't see each other very well.
All of the rooms in the convent had arched tops because somehow arches stay strong when there are earthquakes. Usually the whole room had an arched ceiling and a smaller arch were over the beds, altars and drawers/chests. The altars usually had a painting or statue of the nun's favorite saint. The rooms were very bare because the nuns could only own less than 25 items. I was very surprised when some of the items included laborate tea sets (shown in picture). The parents could only give the nuns clothes, books or food. Things that they could share. Brushes, mirrors, perfume or any type of make-up was banned because they thought it was a sign of vanity. I couldn't imagine going all my life without being able to see myself.
We had a very nice guide and she gave us loads of information. The first room we saw was the "Locutorio", which means place where there is a phone. The nuns did NOT have phones but their families could pay visits to them and talk through two sets of wooden bars. That meant; a. they couldn't touch each other, and b. they couldn't see each other very well.
All of the rooms in the convent had arched tops because somehow arches stay strong when there are earthquakes. Usually the whole room had an arched ceiling and a smaller arch were over the beds, altars and drawers/chests. The altars usually had a painting or statue of the nun's favorite saint. The rooms were very bare because the nuns could only own less than 25 items. I was very surprised when some of the items included laborate tea sets (shown in picture). The parents could only give the nuns clothes, books or food. Things that they could share. Brushes, mirrors, perfume or any type of make-up was banned because they thought it was a sign of vanity. I couldn't imagine going all my life without being able to see myself.
We saw the dining room, where all of them ate their meals. We also saw the kitchens. Most nuns shared seperate little kitchens but for big meals they used the huge one. The nuns also sold cakes and cookies to make money for restorations. the most popular cookie cutter was a penguin because the nuns wore white and black! They also made a type of bread that they also sold.
My favorite place in the convent was the Orange Tree Cloister. It had a few cool orange trees in it but that wasn't the best part. All of the columns for arches, at the top had beautiful paintings of birds, fruits and vegetables (other picture). That wasn't the only pretty thing though. All around the walls were paintings of different saints. After mass the nuns would walk around the courtyard in procession. The "line leader" of the day would look at every picture and say "Pray for us Catalina, saint of sorrow".
The coolest was the laundry. The water flowed into a channel that had clay pots beside it. There were holes on each side of the channel that were just above the height where the water flowed. When the water was blocked just behind the hole, the water went into the hole, flowed through a pipe and came out in the clay pots where they washed the clothes. The drain was stopped with a carrot, but I am not sure if they ate it afterwards or not!
After the tour we went to the shop and bought rose scented body cream, a rosary and parsely soap made by the nuns. The parsley soap actually smells realy good!!!! The convent was beautiful and if I had to be a nun, that would be the place to stay.
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