Palace of the Marqués del Apartado / Casa de la Serpiente

Photo credit: YoelResidente on Wikimedia Commons

The Palace of the Marquis of Apartado is the ten-year work (1795-1805) of Manuel Tolsá. One of the greatest works of the late 18th century, todaythe massive palaces faces the Templo Mayor site which was excavated only in the 1980s. On the corner of Calle de Donceles and República de Argentina, it is probably one of Tolsá’s least-known but most successful works, and one which still inspires today.

A work of strident NeoClassicism, the building has two facades on their respective streets, and three levels. Both facades are clad in great quarried stone.

• The Marquis of Apartado refers to a title granted by the King of Spain to the descendants of Francisco Manuel Cayetano de Fagoaga y Arozqueta.
• El Apartado de Oro y Platón was a proto-industrial organization. Founded in 1655, it was dedicated to the extraction of gold and silver from mines under the control of multiple owners.
• Francisco Manuel Cayetano de Fagoaga y Arozqueta bought the organization in 1718 and the noble title was included in the purchase price. His descendants ran the Apartado until 1778.
• (Another of the same family’s homes is another historic site in the San Angel.)
• In the 19th century, this building served as the residence of several other wealthy families, while the Apartado was folded into the Casa de Moneda in 1848. At the end of the 19th century, the palace was taken over by the government and used as the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction.

In 2005, the building came under the control of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) who still occupy the building today. Multiple artifacts related to the Templo Mayor have been found inside and underneath the building. A haunting altarpiece of the Cuauhxicalli Eagle was discovered there in 1985 and is today in the INAH collection.