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The Convent of Santo Ecce Homo (Convento de Santo Ecce Homo) is a Dominican monastery founded in 1620. It’s located near Villa de Leyva and makes for a great day trip combined with other attractions outside of town.
Getting There
To get to Santo Ecce Homo, you can take a bus from Villa de Leyva heading to Santa Sofía. Ask the driver to let you off at the road to the monastery, and it’s about a 15 minute walk from there. You can also hire a taxi in town to take you there and to other attractions.
Visiting
Admission is COP$10,000 (as of January 2023) and it’s open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Tours are self-guided, and info panels are in Spanish, English, and French.
Fossils
Before purchasing a ticket, just inside the entrance is a floor paved with fossils. The area is rich with fossils, and a stop at El Fósil is a must when visiting Santo Ecce Homo.
Courtyard
After purchasing a ticket, the door enters the beautiful colonnaded courtyard, which is full of perfectly manicured flowers and shrubs. A well sits in the center.
Before walking upstairs to the first stop on the self-guided tour, you’ll notice an original fresco that was once painted over. Once at the top of the stairs, you’ll get a good look at the courtyard from above.
Church
The doors upstairs open to the choir of the church, complete with a creepy faceless mannequin surrounded by several antique books and an organ. You can see the church from above and the wooden ceiling.
The tour heads back downstairs where you enter the church on which construction began on April 25, 1650.
To the left of the altar is a side chapel.
Capitulary Hall
A door from the chapel leads to the Capitulary Hall. This is where meetings and special events in the lives of the friars were held. Today, there is an exhibit of ecclesiastical art. On display are crosses, statues, vestments, and more, including a unique crucifix with Christ alive on the cross.
Exhibits
The next rooms contain various exhibits. The first room displays indigenous clothing and artifacts, the second was the library, and the third displays farming equipment that would have been used by the friars.
The fourth room shows an example of a friar’s cell and how he would have lived during the 17th century.
The Refectory is where the friars would gather to eat meals. One or two would serve the meals while the rest would listen to the reading of a text.
The final few rooms display statues, paintings, and photographs. In the Sacristy, look for a wooden panel depicting a skull and crossbones wearing a traditional Andean winter cap.
Cemetery
The gates to the left of the church open to the cemetery. Several friars, priests, and others are buried there.
School
Across from the monastery was a Christian school founded in 1651, Schola Christi. I walked around the building but none of the rooms were open.
Hotel
Next door to the school, a large hotel was under construction. The Santo Ecce Homo Hotel will provide visitors who want a peaceful place to stay with guest rooms and a restaurant. Behind it is a space where it’s possible to camp.
Observatory
Finally, on the road to Santo Ecce Homo you’ll pass the Astronomical Observatory of Zaquencipa and Kosmos Space Museum (Observatorio Astronómico de Zaquencipa y Kosmos Museo del Espacio). It’s supposedly a space museum during the day and astronomical observatory at night. We stopped by out of curiosity. The caretaker told us to honk the horn to get the attention of the owner, but he never came outside. The hours listed were 9am to 5pm and 7pm to 10pm daily.
