Santos Reyes Church, Peñón de los Baños

The Santos Reyes Church is the neighborhood church of Peñón de los Baños. It’s often confused with the Guadalupe Chapel, a historical Baroque chapel almost hidden within the famous medicinal baths.

This church is on the east side of the Circuito Interior highway. That’s a major obstacle if you’re wanting to walk to the baths and the other older chapel. But, with one of the few places to cross the highway, the walk can be done in about ten minutes.

The Santo Reyes Church was split away from the Church of the Divine Providence in Colonia Moctezuma in 1961. The new parish church, here, was officially opened in 1969 after three years of construction. The parish also runs a hermitage to welcome prayer groups on the slopes between the Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl volcanoes. Called the “Ermita del Silencio” (Hermitage of Silence), it’s about a 90-kms drive south and east of the parish church.

The Santos Reyes Church had originally planned to also maintain a Chapel of the Ascension. Lacking resources and already controlling several other chapels, that property was taken over by an Orthodox parish who remain there even to this day.

The church website indicates that the parish today includes the three neighborhoods of Barrio de los Reyes, Barrio del Carmen, and Barrio de la Ascensión del Señor.  This is fitting, as some maps will include the entire airport within the neighborhood of Peñón de los Baños, and practically nothing else. Most residents will agree that the neighborhood, including these three barrios, stops to the southeast at the edge of the airport.