Monasterio del Corpus Christi
5 Comments There exists a convent in the heart of Madrid, which also sells dulces (sweets) to the public at large. It’s off west of Plaza de Mayor off past the farmers market in a small side street. I made my way to the convent on my first afternoon in Madrid (25th May 2006).
Upon arrival, I mistakenly entered the chapel, which sported large double doors. As I entered, I heard a nun chanting prayer services in a very decorated medieval style church; pews were sparsely populated with senior citizens. Boy was I confused, no candy here. But I did get to take in a bit religious art.
I went outside, looked around confused. I just happened to say hola to a homeless person sitting by the entrance, which was all out of plain curtousy. He responded in english, asking what I was looking for. “Ah, the dulces. It is up over there” he responded and then promptly lead me up the street, for which I gave him some loose change, to a smaller door. There one must press the top-most doorbell/buzzer for entry. Unfortunately for me, the business hours (9:00-13:00 and 16:00-18:30) had passed and I was out of luck for the day (no one even answered the intercom).
Out of luck, I wandered a bit of Madrid and stopped into a pub. I couldn’t resist this pub, whose name is The Drunken Duck:
The next day (26th May), I arrived at the convent around 11:30. A nun answered the intercom, to which I replied, “dulces”. The door buzzed open for me and in I went through, following the posted signs, a hall to a lazy-sue type device. At this point, one must communicate to an unseen nun to obtain the candy. Double misfortune for me, I had the hardest time understanding what the nun was saying and finally determined, with another visitor’s help, that they were sold out for the morning.
Third time’s the charm (27th May). I went to the right place, made the right incantations through the intercom, got to the lazy-sue and spoke (and understood the) Spanish. I got a kilo and a half of cookies and candy:
We (me, my husband, and 10 y/o son) also visited the monastary, on June 2nd, and purchased a box of tea cookies. It is a fascinating experience. Because the nuns are not allowed any face to face contact with people outside all of the transaction takes place sight unseen via the ‘lazy susan’. The tea cookies were a great late afternoon ‘take the edge off’ snack for the remainder of our 2 week stay in Spain!
Comment by Sue — June 17, 2006 @ 5:28 am
Sue,
That’s great to hear. Those cookies are delicious.
Cheers,
Ben
Comment by Ben — June 21, 2006 @ 5:12 am
It took my group of friends two attempts to locate the “cookie nuns” as we came to call them during our November 2006 trip to Madrid. We were VERY excited to finally find them and the cookies were opened as soon as we left the monastary. I did return home with one box in tact for my son’s school principal ,Brother Ray B., a Christian Brother. I know he will cherish such a special gift! I loved the nun’s precious voice also…CW
Comment by carra williams — November 29, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
thanks for the help in finding dulces conventuales in madrid!
Comment by vale — September 12, 2008 @ 2:42 am
Thank you !
My good friend Jeanne has been looking for some guide on this for her next trip for whole of last week !
Comment by Alex from Hong Kong — February 21, 2010 @ 9:19 pm