San Ángel is a colonia (neighborhood) located in the southwest of Mexico City in Álvaro Obregón borough.

Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir.

San Ángel is located in the southwest of the Federal District of Mexico along the southern end of Avenida Insurgentes, bordering the Ciudad Universitaria of UNAM .

[2] The community is surrounded by a volcanic rock bed called the Pedregal, which was formed by the eruption of nearby Xitle Volcano about 2,000 years ago.

Parts of this volcanic rock bed have been made into protected areas such as the Pedregal de San Ángel.

The representative plant of the area is called the palo loco (crazy stick) because it blooms in the winter rather than the summer.

[6] The museum conserves a number of the monastery's original spaces, such as the dining room,[2] and has one of the most important collections of colonial era art in Mexico, including a permanent exhibition called "The Silence of the Carmelites."

[7] Around the Plaza del Carmen, there are a number of historic buildings such as the old municipal palace, which has been converted into the Centro Cultural San Ángel.

Its interior contains a highly ornate Baroque fountain covered in plates, platters, cups and other ceramic pieces from Asia, Europe and Mexico.

A short distance from this plaza is another structure called the Casa Blanca which is possibly the oldest in San Ángel, built in the middle of the 17th century by the Counts of Oploca.

[2] The Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Reserve is located in the southwest of Mexico City in the Ciudad Universitaria.

It is distinguished as being over a relatively solid bed of volcanic rock, from an eruption of the nearby volcano Xitle and has a number of unique plant and animal species.

This referred to the solidified volcanic flow that surrounds the center of San Ángel, which came from the nearby Xitle Volcano about 2,000 years ago.

[5] The monastery complex remained important through the colonial period, but a series of misfortunes would lead to its closure by the end of the 19th century.

[6] The school portion, called the Colegio, was disputed between the municipal governments of Mexico City and San Ángel, which were separate at that time.

San Ángel from this time period was described by traveler Marquesa Calderón de la Barca in her book Life in Mexico.

[3] The two growing areas would eventually join, completed with the construction of Avenida Insurgentes which divided the former gardens of El Carmen from those of Chimalistac.

Little by little, this value is being lost to modernity, but in general most of the buildings and spaces that represent various architectural styles such as baroque, neoclassical, and neocolonial have been preserved.

The main features of this zone are its monuments, plazas, narrow stone-paved streets, single or two floored houses made of brick or painted with vivid colors, balconies facing the avenues with vines and decorated front doors.

Casa del Mayorazgo Fagoaga This casona from the 17th century was named after a knight of the Santiago order, Don Francisco de Fagoga who was the owner of the house.

Halfway through the 19th century, the Colegio Del Carmen was demolished almost in its totality to edify San Ángel's Municipal Palace, finished in 1887.

A century later, June 23, 1987, the edification was finally destined to be the Centro Cultural San Ángel, having its opening ceremony January 29, 1988.

Its name refers to the two patios the house possesses, the main one with a garden and rooms surrounding it and a secondary one used to keep carriages and horses.

Legend tells that it served as a lair for the popular bandit Chucho el Roto, reason why the house is also referred to by his name.

Halfway through the 19th century, it was inhabited by judge José del Villar Bocanegra, who rearranged it to serve as barracks for a detachment of emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.

Later on it became a hospital that served the Saint Patrick's Battalion, composed mainly by Irish soldiers who defended the Mexican people from invasive troops.

The mayor attraction of the museum is a Baroque fountain made of tile, porcelain, seashells and Chinese crockery featuring figures of mermaids and fish.

The main annual event in San Ángel is the Feria de las Flores (Flower Fair) in July.

[1] It begin with a parade of floats starting at the Parque de la Bombilla, and includes activities such as painting exhibitions and contests, concerts, dance and theater recitals, charreada and food tasting.