Ex-Hacienda de Miravalles

The old hacienda of Miravalles stands in the village of the same name, a few kilometers north of Compostela, and is tied to one of the most curious noble titles of New Spain. In 1690 the Spanish crown made Alonso Dávalos Bracamonte, a native of Compostela, the first Count of Miravalle, and his family's estates around Compostela included tobacco and sugar lands, cattle pastures and gold mines.

What remains today is a set of partly ruined buildings that still show how a large rural hacienda worked: corridors with Doric columns, windows with fine wrought-iron grilles, and the spaces of the kitchen, storerooms and stables. The highlight is the small chapel, whose facade is usually dated to the late 17th or early 18th century and has a simple but clearly baroque decoration. Sources differ on the dates of the individual buildings, which were altered over the centuries.

The family's name lives on far from here: a later countess bought the land in Mexico City that eventually became the famous Condesa neighborhood. Here, in the quiet countryside, the hacienda is a short and atmospheric side trip from Compostela.