The Museum of the City of Mexico (Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico) is located at Pino Suarez 30, a few blocks south of the Zocalo, on what was the Iztapalapa Causeway, near where Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma II met for the first time. This building used to be the palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, who were the descendants of one of the conquistadors with Cortés. The house was extensively remodeled to much the appearance that it has today and remained in the family until 1960, when the Mexico City government acquired it from them in order to found the Museum that is found there today. The museum contains a number of elements of the old palace as well as 26 rooms dedicated to the history and development of Mexico City from Aztec times to the present. It also contains a library and the studios of painter Joaquín Clausell, who lived here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The building was completed in 1779 and the descendants of the counts lived in it until 1960. The architect that completed the palace was Francisco Antonio de Guerrero y Torres.
History
The history of the Old Palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, goes back to the year of 1527, when Mr. Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano arrives in New Spain from the island of Cuba where he had been governor in 1524; to take the position of Corregidor de Texcoco and seer of Hernán Cortés.
When Hernán Cortés distributes the lands closest to the Templo MayorMexica among his closest arms partners and collaborators; he gives the land located in the then Ixtapalapa street to the corner of the street that goes to the hospital of Our Lady of the Conception to Don Juan Gutierrez Altamirano, who shortly before had married nuptials with Juana Altamirano Pizarro, cousin’s sister of the conqueror. In this period, according to some plans, the house belonged to the architectural typology of “strong house”, that is, a house with defensive elements against adverse situations. The description of the first room house built by orders of Lic. Altamirano corresponded to a rectangular-plan building with the appearance of a three-story feudal tower with a door on the ground floor, on the middle floor four windows and on the last floor there were six windows plus.
It was until the third generation that the family was awarded the first noble title: “Counts of Santiago de Calimaya”; from Santiago because they were devotees of Santiago Apostle, Spanish patron; from Calimaya because that was the name of the town that was given to them in Encomienda and that generated great wealth. The title of count was granted to Don Fernando Altamirano y Velasco, a direct descendant of Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano, in turn, married María de Velasco and Ibarra, granddaughter of Viceroy Luis de Velasco. Fernando Altamirano received the royal grant of Philip III of Spain in which he was awarded the title of count of Santiago de Calimaya in 1616, and which was used for fourteen generations.
A time of economic and social boom came for the Altamirano Velasco family. The remodeling of the old manor house in which their ancestors had inhabited, was in charge of the seventh count, since the building was very damaged by earthquakes and floods, and more than remodeling, it was a complete restructuring, because the old building was collapsed This new construction is related to the promulgation of the Bourbon Reforms in New Spain. These reforms made that although the counts maintained a status as noble, many of their properties would be seized by the Crown. The counts suffered economic difficulties at this time, but their status as nobles allowed them to get the audience to allow them to tax their lands, so that they obtained money for the rebuilding of their palace.
The palace was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century, the work being carried out between 1776 and 1779 by the criollo Creole Francisco Antonio de Guerrero y Torres, author of other works of great importance such as the Palace of the Marquises of Jaral del Berrio and the chapel of the Pocito. In the viceregal era, the street of Pino Suárez (at that time, Iztapalapa road) was the fashionable street for the houses of the nobility, which were thus aligned with the Royal Palace. The facade of the palace was covered with tezontle and the cover and the windows with quarry.
The house was inhabited by the family until 1964 which is an exceptional case, it was the only manor house occupied by a noble Novo-Hispanic family until the mid-twentieth century, when it had to be sold due to the financial crisis of the owners, the Cervantes family, who sold it to the government of Mexico City, which ordered the foundation of the museum in the house.
Palace Architecture
In this viceregal Palace, it is possible to appreciate the innovations that Guerrero and Torres implemented in their constructions, in the same way, the last stage of the Mexican baroque is distinguished in this one.
In the lower right corner an element that has been the object of various interpretations was included: a pre-Hispanic carving with the image of a snake head. The renovation of the palace was done from its foundations and it is likely that this element and other objects were found in the excavation. The house was laid out on two floors, without a mezzanine and with two courtyards like all stately homes. The family chapel was a symbol of ancestry and intense social activity.
The coats of arms that crown the arcades of the main courtyard correspond to the intention of highlighting the family ancestry, the same goes for the cannon-shaped gargoyles that adorn the entire upper perimeter of the facade and part of the main gate. The lions that adorn the start of the stairs, as well as the masks of the main gate have an orientalist air, a feature not very common in the house of the nobles.
Another distinctive element of the palace is the shell-shaped fountain located in the main courtyard. Its wear suggests that it may have been worked long before the rebuilding of the house and that it was built there long after it was completed. The main ornamental motif of the fountain is a nereid that plays the guitar and looks towards the family chapel; The connotation, evidently aquatic, has been said, is a possible reference to the overseas trips made by the counts as advanced of the Philippine Islands.
The entire central part of the facade corresponds to the Baroque style. In the upper part, we find the family coat of arms, carved in white marble and that is itself, the sum of the four shields of the most prestigious lineages: Altamirano, Velasco, Castilla and Mendoza; It is also constituted as the first symbol of the nobility reached by the family. The shield is flanked by two atlantes crowned with laurels, symbols of triumph.
It should be noted that on May 2, 1926, during the government of Guadalupe Victoria, the titles of count, marquez, knight and all of the same nature were extinguished forever. It was ordered from then on, to destroy the shields of arms and other signs that remembered the old dependency or link of America with Spain. The coat of arms of the Palace of Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, then was covered with a flat that concealed and preserved it until it was rescued in the 1930s, becoming one of the few and oldest shields of nobility that have been preserved in the Historic Center of Mexico City.
Throughout the cornice, gargoyles shaped like guns carved in quarry, represent the family’s ties with the army and mainly refer to the noble title of General Captains of the Northern Armies. Regarding these, Elisa Vargas Lugo, points out that originally there were, on each of the canyons, statues of life-size soldiers carved in stone with everything and armor. One of these pieces was found when the Federal District Government expropriated the site, and is currently part of the museum’s collection.
All the balconies of the house, both in the street of Pino Suárez, and in that of the Republic of El Salvador, have symbols known as religious monograms at the top, related to the particular devotions of the Counts. Two of these balconies stand out: the balcony that is located in the south-west corner of the house, with a view to both sides of the street, which belonged to the main room. Under it, and as the foundation of the construction, there is a snakehead, another example of the cultural phenomenon of Creole, which had reached its splendor by the 18th century, as it represents that glorious and noble indigenous past that was rescued and that was appropriate and resignified.
As in most of the New Spain houses, access to the interior of the palace was through a white cedar door – which replaced those of pine and walnut -, with two leaves that cover the total of the bay, and that when they opened complete allowed the passage of the carriages, as well as two smaller leaves intended to allow access by people. Carved with allegories that explained the history of the family lineage, these doors were worked and imported from the Philippines and allow us to read the symbols that denoted the prestige of the inhabitants of this ancient palace.
The central courtyard is surrounded by four walls, of which three have arcades and columns, and only one is smooth. The columns, both those on the ground floor and those on the first floor, are plain shaft and Tuscan capital, except that the first floor is smaller, to give an effect of depth and height. The arcs that constitute this space are known as three-point arches, and this is because the alarms, when making the stroke of them, place three circles inside each one, and with straight lines join the epicenters of these, resulting in the stroke of a lower arc.
In front of the fountain, on the other side of the courtyard, we find the stairs to the noble floor. A considerably large trilobular arch, decorated with baroque motifs at the top. At the start we find two cats guarding the passage, it is not known for sure if they are lions, one old and one young, or a male and a female, or a lion and a panther, the truth is that they have traits oriental, and that were elaborated by indigenous hands. Assuming that it is a young and an old lion, it is possible that artisans have received instructions on how to make them, however, having never seen a lion in their life, they are likely to have been represented as “big dogs”, hence the bodies are rather similar to the xoloitzcuintle, dogs considered as sacred to the ancient Mexica, for being those who guarded the passage to the underworld. The staircase has 4 breaks and two access roads; From the base you can see an octagonal shape, which is associated with religious symbology, the octagon is a perfect shape that represents the infinity and purity of spirit, so when passing through that octagon, we find ourselves in a free space of negative energies and closer to the purity of the soul.
Once at the top, we appreciate again the same trilobular arch of the ground floor, but this time decorated with geometric motifs, the architect’s signature. Currently in this space a huge lamp that hangs on the stairs, which was built in the early twentieth century, originally designed to decorate the reception hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs located opposite the central Alameda, is visible. Subsequently, part of the Secretariat was relocated on the central axis, so that this lamp was kept for decades, as part of the historical heritage of the City, until it was decided to place it in this palace. This one, whose style corresponds to Art Nouveau of French origin and promoted in Mexico by Porfirio Díaz, was originally plated in silver, its cornucopia shape of the arms refers to the idea of abundance.
The facade of the chapel corresponds to Baroque art, at the top of it, we find a swastika, symbol of the order of knights of the court of Carlos III, title granted to the counts by the Monarch. We find on the sides columns attached to the striated spindle wall and Corinthian capital capital, supported by two atlants at its base. We also see, circling the access, an arch of flowers, in which there are two faces; their meaning is unknown for sure, but it is presumed that having been done ornamental work by indigenous people, they have decided to place their faces alluding to pre-Hispanic deities.
From Palace to neighborhood
At the end of the 19th century the palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, was located within the commercial area of the center. Little by little, businesses were established in accessories that were rented for these purposes. The heirs of this property continued the custom of renting the interior rooms for housing, but the changes in the city had caused that this area was no longer aristocrats, but popular and the physiognomy of the old manor house began to change based on their New tenants On the ground floor the rooms had tapancos and mezzanine that gave the inhabitants greater spatial possibilities. The first section of the house tried to maintain exclusivity for the family, but the needs of the commercial and financial premises of the lessors cause it to wear out and forget the original use of this space. The fountain of the first courtyard was gradually surrounded and even invaded by pipes and other facilities. The social difference between the inhabitants of the upper and lower quarters began to be lost.
From neighborhood to museum
The importance of the former Palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya was recognized in 1931 when it was declared a national heritage. Later, in 1960, the then Department of the Federal District decreed that the property would become the headquarters of the Museum of the City of Mexico and to adapt the building to its new use, the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez carried out a remodeling, in the that the old rooms became exhibition halls.
When the Palace was transformed into a museum, the policy of restitution of pieces said that it would only be carried out when more than 50% of the piece was missing, and there was documentation of it. This data is important because this restitution caused items to be changed, although only parts of which sufficient documentation was available to ensure that the work was done properly. However, it is also possible that during this process some of the quarry elements have been modified. This situation could cause the symbols that make up the palace to be modified.
On October 31, 1964 the former Palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya was inaugurated as a Museum and in its rooms an exhibition was set up that didactically showed the concept of the city that was being used at that time. This sample lasted 30 years.
In 1992, the Museum of Mexico City was a ruin. It was dismantled to transform it into an information center and remodel the headquarters as a residence for guests of the Department of the Federal District, a project that did not materialize. In 1997, the city’s first elected government reinstated the museum as a priority project. The Dr. Ricardo Prado Nunez ran an extensive restoration in which original finishes were returned as mud flats in the corridors of the second floor, stone friezes and auctions.
In 1998 the new Government of the Federal District retakes the administration of the museum, and with the advice of a group of specialists, museographers, writers and intellectuals in general, the new concept of the museum is designed, an “interactive” museum, an open space that It includes exhibitions, readings, conferences, dialogue tables on various topics, workshops and activities always open to the citizen’s proposal.
For this we worked on five basic programs. The first, museology, was aimed at rehabilitating and maintaining the building, Clausell’s studio, which is located on the top floor, cataloging the sixteen thousand volumes of the library and conducting a permanent script of the museum. The second program, called Los Barrios de la Ciudad, worked with the inhabitants of the different neighborhoods, colonies and subdivisions, rescuing the identity of each one, to show it and share it with the rest of the city. Water was the third theme that aimed to restore the relationship of man with nature, from a plastic and conceptual point of view but also didactic. The Body, which referred to the individual experience of the inhabitants of the city, deals with aspects as diverse as fashion and clothing, to the concepts of morality of this urban society. Finally, El Prójimo was the program that dealt with social relations, families, the concepts of closeness and remoteness, solidarity and detachment in daily living.
Currently the Museum of Mexico City holds multiple temporary exhibitions and cultural activities of various kinds; integrating the community of the city that produces different manifestations, all of them plural and open to the changes faced by a society in constant movement. Continuously transforming the identity of one of the largest cities in the world.
Exhibitions and activities
The Museum of Mexico City is a space open to meetings, a point where the most dissimilar glances intersect and interweave. In this space visitors have the opportunity to access different artistic and cultural events ranging from exhibitions, concerts, plays and dance, recitals, conferences, book presentations, courses and workshops, as well as specialized guided tours for each of the temporary exhibitions and about the history of the building.
The museum currently has 11 permanent exhibition halls including the study of the painter Joaquín Clausell on the top floor of the building, where the mural known as “The Tower of a Thousand Windows” is one of the most representative works of the Mexican Impressionist painter, a music room, a chapel and a sacristy that function as a site museum to tell the story of the site. In the year 2018The exhibition “Miradas a la Ciudad. Space for urban reflection” was inaugurated, a permanent exhibition that reflects on the urban phenomenon in Mexico City, through a tour of eight exhibition halls that use texts, objects, works of art and technology to describe the different facets of the city, from its history, philosophical conception, problems, sustainability, architecture, urban planning, festivities and social movements on the ground floor of the enclosure.
This enclosure that belongs to the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City has 16 rooms for temporary exhibitions, which are modified depending on the needs of each exhibition and a multipurpose room next to the Joaquín Clausell mural. Its collection consists of a collection of around 2,600 artistic pieces, documents, objects and furniture from the s. XVII to the s. XX.
Inside it is the Jaime Torres Bodet library (the largest bibliographic collection about Mexico City) that aims to preserve, organize and disseminate the documentary heritage about Mexico City and has a total of 1590 volumes dating from the 18th century to date. Likewise, the site houses the Guillermo Tovar de Teresa bookstore belonging to the Economic Culture Fund.
In 2014, the exhibition “Spanish exile in Mexico City. Cultural legacy” was presented, a historical reflection on the socio-cultural influence of Spanish exile in Mexico City. In 2015 the exhibition “09/19/1985 7:19 A 30 years after the earthquake was presented. Emergency, solidarity and political culture” that reflected the natural phenomenon that happened in 1985 and the profound impact it has had on society and its values, that from the independent mobilization that took place at that time, they are projected today in a broader practice of life in democracy in Mexico City. The exhibition combined scientific, narrative, audiovisual, literary, journalistic and objectual resources as an educational and informative instrument to recover historical memory.
In 2016, the exhibition “Images to see you. An exhibition on racism in Mexico” was presented, reflecting on racism in Mexican society through more than 200 pieces from the 18th to the 21st century, including paintings, objects, photography, installation, sculpture, scientific collections, video and documents. That year, the exhibition “Luz e Imaginación” was inaugurated, which led attendees to have a sensory experience, about the changes that have taken place in Mexico City through the use of contemporary art and technology using various elements such as lights, steam, water and sounds. In November 2017, the exhibition “Mexico City in art was inaugurated. Crossing of eight centuries”