Iglesia de San Juan de Dios — Local services in San Miguel de Allende

This is the very heart of the Historic Center of San Miguel. In fact, it is the anchor for the UNESCO naming of the city as a World Heritage Site. This is due to the fact that the Inland Royal Road and the 500-year-old Bridge to Guanajuato arrived here to the St. John of God complex in 1546. The Royal Hospital of Saint Raphael was founded in the 18th century and just celebrated its 250th anniversary. The building was a thriving school since the late 20th century. The inner courtyard of the "Hospital Real de San Rafael" as it was called, rivals the inner courtyard of Bellas Artes, only that it is a one-story version which lost much of its interior stone adornment in the 1960's.

This area had a very small population and was at the edge of town. In keeping with good sanitation practices, the hospital was placed on the outskirts of the city using a formula for successful urban layouts which was part of the Spanish Crown's administrative order since Spain was a part of the Roman Empire.

The first street of the San Miguel de Allende, formerly San Miguel el Grande, is San Pedro Street. "Upon this rock I will build my church" is a statement attributed to Jesus Christ, thus, tiny St. Peter Street (Calle San Pedro), is the very first street in the original layout of San Miguel de Allende-and it all started here, since the funding to build the San Miguel de Allende fabulous stone architecture came from the silver and gold mines that shipped the ingots through San Juan de Dios / Hospital Real de San Rafael, on the Royal...

While walking down Calle Canal I wandered along some of the smaller streets and came upon this very attractive church..the large trees and shade dream me in..there were people playing instruments, a food wagon with interesting dishes, a school just letting students off at day’s end...I just sat down and rested and very much enjoying the next hour of activity..my visit to SMA was February/March 2020, but I have just written about this event last year... I look forward to my next...

We found this church by accident while looking for a Sunday mass. As it happens they had one Sunday mass in English which was nice to have. The church itself is old and very beautiful with amazing store made domes and lots of statues. A great place to visit for mass or at a non mass time just go see the...