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).

Church of Santo Domingo

Church of Santo Domingo. On the north side of the square, what we see is the XVIII c. version of the church, consecrated by the bishop of China in 1736, what shows the importance of Mexico City as hub for the trade with the Far East. The façade is grand, with a single belfry and two reliefs, one of the Holy Ghost descending on Saint Dominic and the upper one depicting the Assumption, once inside,  the church reveals its full splendor a single nave of great dimensions, with lateral chapels a neoclassical main altar by Tolsa and baroque altar pieces on the extremes of the transept, the rest of the chapels are richly decorated and the choir has a fine wooden stall and an organ.

The convent was destroyed together with other chapels after the passing of the Reforma Laws (expropriation of Church properties and Indian lands), a chapel, perhaps originally a ¨capilla posa¨still stands on the left side of the former Atrium.  

Plaza de Santo Domingo

Plaza de Santo Domingo. Two blocks north of the Zocalo, Santo Domingo square is the best preserved Viceregal square in town, during Aztec times the whole area was the house of Cuauhtemoc the last Aztec lord, then after the conquest the first to establish themselves in the area were the Dominicans.

The square is a box full of baroque jewels, to the north the Church of Santo Domingo, NE the Inquisition Palace, E. the Royal Customs House, S. the house of the Mayorazgo de Medina on the same side of the street further west a house from the XVIIc occupying the place of the House of Malinche, the translator and lover of Cortés, truly instrumental in the conquest of the Aztec empire, to the west the Evangelist portal, most of these buildings will be described in separate entries.

The square has preserved a rare harmony, most of the buildings facades are from the XVIII c. all of them  baroque, the skyline is uniform and also the construction material used, at the center of the square a very discreet monument to Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez who participated in the Independence struggle.

The square has witnessed a number of stories and anecdotes, one of them in the 1920´s an incident known as ¨las pelonas¨(young women, who followed de European and American fashion of wearing their hair very short, a la garcon), well at that time the Inquisition Palace was the School of Medicine (frightening isn´t it?) and the students subjected to ridicule  a group of Pelonas passing by, word reached the Military Academy, some 4km west of the square and a group of cadets decided to defend the honor of las pelonas, so a cadet battalion altogether with cannons made their way to the square to request an apology to las pelonas, obviously the Medical students were apologetic indeed.  

The disciples of Diego, the Abelardo Rodriguez market

Diego Rivera´s disciples, the murals at Abelardo Rodriguez Market.  I suggest to visit first the Murals at the Ministry of Education, most of them from  Diego, but you will find also works by Charlot, Amado de la Cueva, Amero , Guerrero and Montenegro (Iberoamericana Library) all in pristine condition, as you exit the building make a left , then a right and walk some two blocks, you will soon realize that you are entering a neglected part of the Historic Centre and then  on Venezuela St you will find the market, built in the 30´s after demolishing a great part of the XVII c. Jesuit school of San Pedro and San Pablo, just a few parts of the school were integrated to the new building, for instance a courtyard where Pablo O´Higgins, an American, painted his murals.

The work was done by Mexican and American artists, members of the ¨Revolutionary Writers and Artists league¨  The Murals are mainly on the access gates to the market, for me the best ones are the murals painted by the Greenwood sisters, specially the one by Grace Greenwood (NE access) showing mining, minting, the distribution of gold and the oppression of workers, another very impressive mural is the one by Isamu Noguchi in the upper floor in reds, blacks and grays, quite somber and a mix technique of painting and sculpture, very interesting.

It is worth to talk to the market vendors, one realizes that these simple persons are aware of the importance of the paintings and proud of their work place, as a market, the merchandise there is uneventful, but the place worth visiting. Exiting the market on Venezuela St make a left, from there you will see a large structure like giant sinking ship, is the Loreto Church, only one block away,  the place looks like crumbling and its is a not very successful exercise of neo classism with a touch of Palladio, go inside, the place is dilapidated but grand, quite an experience, the interior looks like an abandoned Roman temple. The foto is from Milenio, by René Soto.

Church of San Francisco el grande

San Francisco el grande, the little that remains of the largest Franciscan convent in the Americas.

Madero St, across from the house of tiles. The convent of San Francisco was the first in Mexico City,  at one point had an extension of 30,000 sq m, a number of churches and cloisters, one of the most famous of these chapels was the one of San Jose de los Naturales which it had the lay out of a mosque and was demolished at the end of the XVIIIc to give way to the church of the Servitas. By 1857 the Church properties expropriation laws passed by the liberals, headed by Benito Juarez, were in force and the first victim was San Francisco, the convent and churches were sold and demolished, these laws not only affected ecclesiastical properties but also Indian lands, turning the Indians from owners to peasants and was one of the causes of the discontent that resulted in the 1910 revolution, not to mention the enormous damage to Mexico´s artistic wealth.

What remains of San Francisco are the Balvanera Chapel, San Francisco Church, the old cloister, ruins of the de Profundis chapel and ruins of San Antonio Chapel.

The Balvanera chapel is what one sees from Madero St, a splendid, although mutilated, estipite façade from the XVIIIc., inside the gilded altar is also from the XVIIIc but not original of the chapel, it has 2 domes decorated with gothic ribs, in Mexico we say that the gothic style died in Europe in the XIVc and came to Mexico to be buried in the XVIc, in this case the burial took place later as the first dome built in Mexico City dates from 1745 (circa).

A splendid archway from the XVIIc  is the entrance to San Francisco church from Balvanera, the nave is very impressive as the dimensions of the church, but little else remains, the main altar, a beautiful gilded wood work is from the 1950´s when the church was returned to the Franciscans, the frieze is original with the emblems of Franciscans and the Holy Sepulcre and the gilded angels on the choir rail.

The cloister is now a Methodist Church (Gante St around the corner from San Francisco), quite well preserved, but only survive  the arches and columns, or at least is the only part that you can visit, it is a great baroque work, the ground floor from mid XVIIc and the upper floor from the XVIIIc, nevertheless the whole gives you the impression of being older, there  is something in the stone work that resembles the ¨plateresco¨ , the frieze is decorated with triglyphs and metopes.

The ruins of the de Profundis chapel are around the corner on 16 de septiembre St, where now stands the bakery Panadería Ideal, quite surrealistic to pass though wedding cakes to fin the noble arches and a small courtyard of the old chapel.

San Antonio y todos Santos Chapel, actually what remains of it, is a block south of panadería Ideal at the corner of eje Central and V. Carranza only the dome was left, the little building now houses a Fondo de Cultura Económica library and the upper floors are or were the office of the Council of Chroniclers of Mexico City.

Palace of the Count of Santiago de Calimaya

Palace of the Count of Santiago de Calimaya (Mexico City Museum), Pino Suarez at Rep. del Salvador.

One of my favorites Noble houses of Mexico City, built by Juan Altamirano a relative of Hernan Cortés in the XVIc , the house was redone in the XVIIIc by the architect Guerrero y Torres (or at least is attributed to him), the façade is of an elegant simplicity, adorned by gargoyles fashioned as cannons, therefore its name as House of the Cannons, the door is one of the finest in town and at the corner you will find the head of an Aztec serpent from the wall that used to enclose the dual ¨Templo Mayor¨ of Tenochtitlan, the piano nobile has an outstanding arcade, probably the most noble of all in the city, with a charming chapel and down below the courtyard with a fountain decorated with a double tailed mermaid. Ask for the Clausell studio, known as the tower of the 1000 windows, quite a pleasant surprise, rather different from all the murals you could see in this town. 

Church of Regina Coeli

Church of Regina Coeli. Calle de Regina at Boivar. The old conventual church of a Franciscan nunnery, it was established in the late XVIc.  The church we see dates from  the XVIIc and was finally open in 1731 the work of architect Custodio Duran , the main portal has a beautiful relief of the birth of our Lady, the smaller portal is a reduced and simpler version of the first. The interior has splendid baroque altars, the main one of estipites (this column is an upside down  truncated pyramid and became the signature of Mexican baroque), with saints of the Franciscan order,   the evangelists, querubs and gilded foliage producing and inspiring view. You cannot miss the Medina Pizarro Chapel, entering  is just across the nave under an imposing archway, also the work of Custodio Duran with paintings by Villalobos.