Monastery of San Diego

Lonely Planet review

Northwest of El Panecillo, the beautiful 17th-century Monastery of San Diego sits in a quiet courtyard behind thick walls above the old town. The only way inside is by tour. Although the tour is recited with the enthusiasm of a mass in Latin, it's worth suffering through to see the wealth of colonial art inside. There are outstanding works from both from the Quito and Cusco schools, including one of Quito's finest pulpits, carved by the notable indigenous woodcarver Juan Bautista Menacho.

There's also a fascinating 18th-century painting by Miguel de Santiago of the Last Supper. The oddest work in the collection is an unidentified painting by Heronimous Bosch, titled Passage from this Life to Eternity. No one can explain how it got here. At the end of the tour you can climb narrow stairs to the bell tower and walk along the rooftop.