Palace of Autonomy: UNAM

Photo: Patricia Alzuarte Díaz, Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The Palace of Autonomy (Palacio de la Autonomía) celebrates the notion of that big, political word that so confounds international visitors. In fact, freedom from government control, academic freedom, had to be fought for and won, by students, professors, academics and researchers.

The reverberations are still felt today. The word Autonomous still needs to be spoken every time one names one of these government-supported, public universities.

Today, still a part of UNAM, the palace is the site of a number of museums.

The Building

The Palace building went up in the decades after the Reformation had closed the Santa Teresa Monastery. Built of white stone quarried near Pachuca in Hidalgo, the style is eclectic, combining elements from a number of other styles. Some of the foundations rest on a perimeter wall which surrounded the Templo Mayor site.

After the fall of ancient Tenochtitlan, the space had been reserved for the Casa de Monedas mint. But soon after became part of the Santa Teresa la Antigua monastery complex. When that complex was closed by the Reformation, this part was converted to residential units. The Porfirio Díaz government soon took over this section and had the present building constructed early in the 20th century. By 1910, it was housing the Normal School of Teachers. This was soon folded into the National University of Mexico which came to be UNAM.

The building served as the UNAM dean’s offices, and the papers founding the University were signed here in  1929. When most of UNAM moved to University City (CU) in 1953, it began serving as the National School of Dentistry. The dentists then moved to CU, too, in 1958. The building then became the School of Nursing and Obstetrics, and then part of the National Preparatory School until 1978.

Today it serves as the Museum of University Autonomy, which also hosts a Salon of Mexican Dentistry, a temporary exhibition hall, and an archaeological exhibition. The university radio station UNAM-FM also have studios and archives in the building.

Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.