You may remember a post that I wrote last month in which I described a long walk that I took down Revolución Avenue. After walking for an hour, I reached a subway stop called Barranca del Muerto. Although I had never traveled on the Metro to that stop, I knew the name because it is the end of the line for a route that I sometimes take.
Thursday is my cleaning lady's day to clean the apartment, so I needed to get out of there. I had several hours to kill, so I decided to jump on the subway, go to Barranca del Muerto, and take up where I had left off on my walk down Revolución. Once again, I gave myself one hour. In that hour, would I have time to pass through the historic district of San Angel and make it all the way to the avenue's end by the stadium of the National University?
The Barranca del Muerto subway station had some interesting decorations. The ceilings and walls as I ascended by escalator were painted with designs reminiscent of the embroidery work of the Otomí tribe.
By the exit there were mosaics and stone sculptures that were clearly inspired by pre-HIspanic art.
I emerged from the subway station onto busy Revolución Avenue near another high-rise building under construction.
Just beyond the subway station was the shopping mall "Portal San Angel" which was as far as I had walked on my previous hike.
It is indeed much older than I imagined. Between Google Maps and Wikipedia, I was able to learn that the structure consists of a 14th century Gothic chapel and a 12th century Romanesque cloister that were part of a monastery in Avila, Spain. The building was purchased by William Randolph Hearst, disassembled, boxed and shipped to New York. The stones were never removed from their boxes. They were acquired in 1952 by a Mexican businessman, and the building was reassembled in Mexico City. It is one of only two medieval Spanish structures in the Americas. (The other one, part of a monastery from Segovia which was also purchased by Hearst, is in Miami, Florida.)