Sprawling San Luis Potosi (SLP)

San Luis Potosi, a silver mining town, named after another silver mining town of Potosi, Bolivia, is another colonial city on the Camino Real, also known as the Silver Route. The historical center has one plaza after another. A few of the main squares are connected by pedestrian streets, but THE pedestrian street runs north-south for about 2km, it continues south for another 2km on an alameda, to a basilica, all built in the 17th century. SLP was well on its way to urban sprawl.

Other than a couple of retabla from Carmen and one from Chapel of Aranzazú, the redevelopment project of the old penitentiary, Centro de las Artes, was easily the highlight.

1. The place is huge. It is easily the biggest single structure transformation we have come across (for example, Beijing's 798 Art Zone covers a rather big area, but consists of disparate buildings). This place also had an interesting layout.
2. The anchor of the project is the Leonora Carrington Museum. The surrealist sculptures seem a perfect fit of the location.
3. While the museum takes up less than 10% of the area, the rest of the project, dedicated as various cultural venues, e.g. galleries, library, classrooms, music conservatories,, had plenty of traffic, on a Wednesday afternoon we visited..

So we were not only impressed by SLP's size, but also its success.

El Templo de Nuestra Señora del Carmen.








The former penitentiary is now the Arts Center. One building is a museum dedicated to the works of the Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.








Here's the plan of the old penitentiary. There are 6 cell blocks radiating out from a guard tower.










Templo San Francisco, just 2 blocks from our hotel, had a ship model hanging (2nd below) in front of the altar. Hmmmm.




Attached to the ex convento of San Francisco is the Chapel of Aranzazú with its distinctive 3-part, 5-section, pilasters. ;-)


The interior of the Cathedral.




SLP has some very good mid-twentieth century architecture; the Teatro Manuel Jose Othon.


Teatro Alameda


Museo del Ferrocarril (Former Train Station); inside and out.




One night we ate pizza.


One day we ate takeout chile rellenos.


One evening we went for a stroll to see the action and lights. https://flic.kr/p/2oeyfnJ






Here's the view from our hotel room of the long pedestrian street below.


Bonus shots.