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The Santa Clara Museum (Museo Santa Clara) in Bogotá, Colombia, preserves the Church of Santa Clara (Iglesia de Santa Clara). It was one of the most richly decorated churches during the Colonial period. It’s located steps from Plaza de Bolívar in La Candelaria.
Introduction to the Santa Clara Museum
The Church of Santa Clara is one of the best examples of Romanesque architecture and Baroque decoration in Bogotá. The church also houses an incredible collection of paintings and sculptures from the 17th through 20th centuries. If you visit one church in Bogotá, this should be it. Once inside, you’ll see that just about every square inch is covered with designs, paintings, and statues.
Church of Santa Clara
The Church of Santa Clara was built between 1619 and 1647 as part of the Royal Convent of Santa Clara (Real Convento de Santa Clara). It was designed by Spanish architect Matías de Santiago and belonged to the Franciscan order of the Poor Clares. Construction was sponsored by the Archbishop of Bogotá, Hernando de Arias y Ugarte (1561-1638). The convent housed a community of nuns who took vows of enclosure, obedience, poverty, and chastity.
In 1863, Colombian President Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera (1798-1878) expropriated the church from the Poor Clares and expelled them from Colombia. The church passed to the government but was later given to the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Congregación del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús) and retuned to worship.The convent was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 1960s, the idea to convert the church into a museum first arose. The Santa Clara Foundation was established in 1968 to facilitate the project, and the government purchased the property and all its works in 1973. The Archdiocese of Bogotá deconsecrated the church and restoration began in 1975. It finally opened to the public as a museum in 1983. In addition to displaying the colonial treasures inside, the museum periodically displays temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
Visiting the Santa Clara Museum
Because of its proximity to the Nariño Palace and other government offices, there’s a security checkpoint on the street leading to the church. Tell the guard you want to visit the Santa Clara Museum. You’ll have your bag searched and you can move on. Admission for foreigners is US$10 for adults, US$5 for kids age 6-12, and free for kids under 6 and seniors over 60 (as of June 2025). The museum is open daily except Mondays. Click here for more detailed information.
Nave of the Church of Santa Clara
The nave is decorated from floor to ceiling with paintings and a handful of altars dedicated to various saints on each side, some containing statues. Motifs are painted directly on the walls, and not a single space has been left empty.
While admiring the church, you’ll likely notice several anagrams. They’re mostly found on the crowning of the doors and the lower part of the altarpiece as well as on the floor trim. “MRA” is the symbol of the Virgin Mary, who represents the maximum image of purity and feminine sanctity in the convent. “THS” represents Jesus, to whom the nuns were betrothed upon entering the convent.
Ceiling
The barrel-vaulted ceiling is 13 meters high. It’s decorated with floral and geometric patterns. Wooden flowers are covered in gold leaf, with blue and yellow paint representing the Immaculate Conception.
Main Altar
The gilded altarpiece is one of the most stunning features of the church. Each of the three rows contains five niches decorated with statues. It was donated by María Arias de Ugarte (d. 1647). In front of the steps up to the main altar, you’ll find the vault where Arias was buried.
Pulpit
The pulpit, which is attached to the right side of the main arch, is made of wood and dates back to the 17th century. It’s decorated in gold leaf and 18th century plaster images of Saints Luke, Mark, and Matthew.
During the Colonial period, Mass was celebrated at the main altar in Latin with the priest’s back to the parishioners. The sermon, however, was presented in Spanish from the pulpit. It was conducted before mass to keep the liturgy from going too long.
Paintings at the Santa Clara Museum
A total of 103 oil paintings decorate the walls of the nave. They date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of the paintings were signed by Gaspar de Figueroa (1594-1658), his son Baltasar Vargas de Figueroa (1629-1667), and Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos (1638-1711). I’ve selected a few to highlight in this post.
St. Francis Solano
This painting, on the Altar of St. Francis Solano, was funded by María Arias de Ugarte and is one of the oldest in the church. It’s dated 1652 and represents St. Francis Solano (1549-1610) in Franciscan missionary robes surrounded by birds. In the background is an episode of his life in which he is submitting a bull that was terrorizing the inhabitants of Tucumán, Argentina. The painting was restored in 1986, revealing a stigmata on his chest and hands.
St. Martin of Tours Parts His Cape with the Poor
This painting was commissioned by José de la Barrera in 1647 and attributed to Gaspar de Figueroa. It’s one of the first works of art to decorate the church. The painting “represents the moment in which St. Martin of Tours divides his cape with the blade of his sword to cover with a part of it a man who, poor in garments, trembles with cold”. After this moment, St. Martin, who was a Roman soldier in Amiens, “has a dream in which Christ presents himself holding the very same fragment of fabric he shared with the poor”. He later became Bishop of Tours and is regarded as the “father of western monasticism”.
Other Paintings
Here are some more of the many paintings you can admire in the nave of the Church of Santa Clara:
Pipe Organ Tribune
At the back of the nave is the pipe organ tribune. It was built in 1677 to house the pipe organ and was donated by the father of Francisca de San Miguel. Nuns performed chants, liturgical songs, and Christmas songs behind the lattice. They also played the banjo and other instruments. One of the most important composers of their music was Juan de Herrera (1670-1738).
Confessionals
A door to the right of the presbytery leads into the convent. Another door opens to a dark narrow corridor running the length of the nave. It contains niches that allowed the nuns to confess without breaking their vow of enclosure. The priests would sit in a series of rooms, along the west side of the nave, to hear the confessions.
