Palace of the Marquis of Apartado, another work by Tolsá

Palace of the Marquis of Apartado. Another great work by Tolsá, the palace was built for D. Jose de Fagoaga y Villaurrutia, second Marquis of Apartado. The Palace has two facades, the main one looking to the east is ornamented by Doric pilasters and a grand pediment on Calle de Argentina facing the archaeological  site of the Templo Mayor, the reason Tolsá had for using pilasters instead of columns was that the street was narrow and the palace had several houses in front, then the pilasters would lighten the massive structure, avoiding the feeling of an oppressive building on the pedestrians, unfortunately the Mexican authorities didn´t observe the international convention for archaeological diggings in urban environments and pull down the houses, a few of them from the XVIII c , and left the splendid building without any reference, hence diminishing its scale, in addition the open sky digging has badly affected not only the Apartado Palace but even the Cathedral due to the water filtering into the subsoil, you can easily see that the ruins of the templo Mayor are now rising over the street level a direct consequence of the above. During the Napoleonic invasion of Spain there were plans of moving the royal family to Mexico City as the Portuguese did with the Braganza sending them to Brazil, and this palace was meant to be the residence of King Ferdinand  VII.

Palace of the Marquis of Buenavista, Museo Nacional de San Carlos

Palace of the Marquis of Buenavista. Built by Tolsá, by order of the Countess of Pinillos and Marchioness of Selva Nevada for her son the Marquis of Buenavista, it was finished in 1803, neoclassical with some baroque influence. It has a beautiful concave façade and the only elliptical courtyard from the XVIII /XIX cc in Mexico City, it has two facades the main one to the north and the second to the south looking to what remains of the garden. The palace houses the National Museum of San Carlos, custodian of the European art collection of the nation, the core of the collection is the legacy of the Royal Academy of San Carlos of Noble Arts (1780), the collection for American or European standards is modest, but very tasteful, with great examples of Flemish ¨tables¨, Sánchez Coello, José de Ribera, Tintoretto, Zurbaran and others. Not very often visited by foreigners, it helps to complete the view of the neoclassical city and to have a more rounded panorama of Mexico City art collections.

Mineria Place, Neoclassical masterpiece

Palace of Minería, (old mining engineering school) . By the end of the XVIII c. a new aesthetic discourse had been established by the Bourbons in Spain and its dominions, the man in charge to preach the new architectonic creed in Mexico was Manuel Tolsá as Director of Architecture of The San Carlos Academy of Noble Arts. The Neoclassical style will break away with the baroque tradition and it will emphasize the light of reason through the revival of the classical forms. The Palace of Minería is a good example of it, it was the seat of the Mining Engineering School and it is the triumph of the horizontal over the vertical line, the façade follows strictly the classical canon with its great pediment  topped by the observatory, the courtyard is severe, with the arches of the upper floor almost flat, providing a welcome lightness to the building, the great staircase is a bit baroque for my taste, but beautiful and grand, don´t miss the chapel and look carefully to the details, the unremarkable inner courtyards, the long corridors with a bright medallion at the end, etc, all of it tries to tell you, in the opinion of many, a Masonic lesson.   

Palace of the Counts of San Mateo de Valparaiso and Marquises of Jaral de Berrio.

Palace of the Counts of San Mateo de Valparaiso and Marquises of Jaral de Berrio.

Venustiano Carranza and Isabel la Católica St.

Built by order of the Countess of San Mateo de Valparaiso and her husband who in turn will become Marquis of Jaral de Berrio, between 1769-1772. it is among the best examples of a noble house in Mexico city, the architect was the renown Guerrero y Torres, the palace has all the construction materials of a Mexican house of that time, volcanic stone for the foundations, light red tezontle for the walls and chiluca for the frames of windows and portals.

The two facades are two stories high and has at the corner a turret, with great rectangular windows with an almost flat arch, providing and almost imperceptible movement, the main portal is of heroic proportions, flanked by ornate pilasters and the coat of arms of the family at the center supported by angels, on top the main balcony. The inside is grand and graceful with a unique helicoidally stairway with two ramps, one for the service, the other for the masters, crowned by a dome.

From late XIX c until recently was the Head Office of Banco Nacional de México, a corporation that has been very important in supporting art and culture in the country, the bank has a outstanding art collection and owns a string of architectonic jewels, acquired by Citibank, the Mexican government reached an agreement with the new owners that no artistic treasures of the bank could be sold or sent out of the country. 

Portal de Evangelistas, love letters or Ruritanian passports

Portal de Evangelistas, Santo Domingo Square, the place for love letters or getting a Ruritanian Passport.

On the W side of the square.The building dates from the XVII c, originally was part of the convent complex,  a simple façade supported by plain columns, but later was sold and due to the proximity to the Real Aduana (Royal Customs House) a number of public scribes set up their stalls under the portal, they were called ¨Envangelist¨ as their trade was to write, first they started writing letters of credits and promissory notes, but soon they saw a chance in writing personal letters, specially love letters for the illiterate, at the same time reading aloud to them the letters they received, now days they are mostly into printing and unfortunately it is said that some of them also into forgery, producing University certificates, U.S.A. green cards or Ruritanian passports, there are  no limits for their creativity and craftsmanship.

La Real Aduana de México and the love story behind it.

The Royal Custom House and the love story behind it.

La Real aduana o  Consulado de México is located on the E side of the square, the building occupies the whole street and a great portion of the block, originally the house was smaller and actually it was rented from the Marquis of Villamayor, by the end of the XVII c. the house was bought by the crown and construction of the existing building began.

The façade is very elegant with windows, portals and gables all of them made with sandstone topped with merlons, the portals are huge because they had to allow the passing of large carriages, one of the reasons the Royal Custom House is on the square is because the merchants could wait outside meanwhile the inspections took place without creating a traffic jam.

The interior is vast and lofty, the main stairway is decorated by murals by Siqueiros, where he made a statement about his communist beliefs and his opinions about the imminent fall of capitalism.

The Aduana was also called ¨El Consulado de Mëxico¨ because during nearly 300 years Mexico was the main trading centre for the Far East and Spain, the great ship know as the Manila galleon used to sail off from Acapulco with silver coins, the pesos of ocho reales, at the time the international currency of choice, were minted in Mexico City (and highly appreciated by the Chinese) and back from Manila to Acapulco, with silk, china, ivory, spices and so on.

El Consulado had the responsibility to apply the mercantile law, which was contained in the ¨Libros del Consulado del mar¨(¨books of the consulate of the sea¨) a legal corpus written in Catalunya and Valencia in the middle ages that governed trade in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

By 1731 D. Juan de Acuña, Marquis of Casa Fuerte (born in Lima, Peru) was viceroy of the New Spain and in his circle was a gentleman 40 years old, wealthy, single  and indolent, his name, D. Juan Gutierrez Rubin de Celis, Knight of Santiago, this gentleman was apathetic, indifferent and hated to work, but soon all this was going to change as a young relative of the viceroy arrived from Spain, she was beautiful, with green eyes, a lovely smile and a witty conversation, her name was Da. Sara de García Somera y Acuña, Don Juan Gutierrez fell in love, he sensed that the young lady might be inclined to accept him as husband and therefore he approached the Viceroy, the Viceroy agreed with one condition, D. Juan had to change his ¨vita et moribus¨ and pass a test, D. Juan was made Prior of the Consulate of Mexico, with the task of finishing the long delayed construction of the Aduana in 6 months time, D. Juan used his own money and kept men working day and night, on the date agreed, he visited Da. Sara followed by a black manservant holding a cushion embroidered with his coat of arms and on top of it the keys of the aduana. Once married he ordered to carve and acrostic on one of the arches given faith of the construction of the Aduana, Alonso Toro in his delightful ¨Cantiga de las piedras¨ mentions that M.H. Janvier in his ¨Legends of Mexico City¨ notes that there is no acrostic with the letters of the name of Da. Sara in the arch inscription, anyhow a lovely story.

The Inquisition Palace and the Zorro legend

The Inquisition Palace, and the Zorro legend.

On the NE of the square, you will find the Inquisition Palace built in 1736 by Pedro de Arrieta at that time the finest architect in Mexico, another work by Arrieta is the old Guadalupe Basilica.

The ¨Puerta Chata¨ (beveled portal) faces the square, a façade of great dignity, with two stories and a gable, the portal is a semi octagonal arch flanked by columns and pilasters with Corinthian capitals, the second floor it has a balcony with another semi octagonal arch and a long rail covering the entire with of the façade, the gable has the emblem of the Inquisition sustained by two angels, the south lateral façade made of tezontle (a porous reddish volcanic stone)  has on it emblems of the passion dawn in darker stone.

The interior is a space of great elegance with columns and arches surrounding the courtyard, the arches on the corners without column support, a great staircase with contrasting arches gives access to the second floor, to the NE the  entry to the old Inquisition prison known as ¨la Perpetúa¨ where the man who served as model or archetype of the zorro was jailed and managed to escape once, just to be arrested again an executed. 

This man was William Lampart an Irishman who was a protégé of the Count-Duke of Olivares, favorite of king Philip IV and who came to Mexico by mid XVII c, after a while he was  very much concern about the living conditions of the Indians and blacks and try to start a rebellion against the Spanish crown, he was arrested an escaped from this building, during the time he was free, he used costumes and masks to perpetrate robberies, he founded  a robbers brotherhood know as the ¨leaf¨(hoja) or the ¨Rama¨ (branch) and with the proceeds of his robberies he tried to fund the rebellion, finally he was burned at the stake.

 Two hundred years later a Mexican writer Riva Palacio, a free mason, wrote a book on him, based on this book an American, Johnston Mc Cullen, another free mason, wrote El Zorro and based the action in California and finally Douglas Fairbanks, also a free mason, made the film, it is said that the Z is a Masonic symbol that means to straight wrongs, finally president  Porfirio Díaz ordered in 1910 to place a sculpture of Lampart inside the Independence Column (the Angel).