Tomas Medina Villarruel Museum

The Tomas Medina Villarruel Museum collects many of the most important historical artifacts from the San Juan Ixtayopan area.

The collection began with an enormous 1984 donation from Tomas Medina Villarruel (1938 – 2008) who was originally from the town. More than 850 artifacts began the collection. These date from late post-classical period and consist of zoo-morphic vessels, pots, grinding surfaces, obsidian blades, anthropomorphic figures, seals and winches.

• The most important work is a figure of Chicomecátl, a maize goddess.

The museum opened in 2003 as the Tomás Medina Villarruel Museum-Library, and soon after received other donations, from the Villaruel family and from many other area residents.

The museum coordinates with the other museums in Tláhuac, including the Tláhuac Museum and the Cuitlahuac Regional Museum. All of them can be visited in a single trip to the area. Most visitors will not want to miss a trip to the church and the impressive Plaza de Soledad which dates from the 17th century. The town’s olive groves are even older, said to have been originally planted in 1531. But the Tomas Medina Villarruel Museum collection will show you that the area has been actively populated even hundreds of years before that.