2024-01-23 09:43:00
In the Palace of the School of Medicine, murmurs can be heard that silence you.
The voice of his story steals the speech. When walking along the corner of República de Brasil and República de Venezuela streets, in the Historic Center of Mexico City, it is impossible to close your eyes to the imposing façade with the shield of the Inquisition, which transports you to a past that is difficult to understand. believe, but easy to imagine.
This palace is indisputable proof that the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established there. This happened centuries ago…
In the houses that Viceroy Enríquez de Almanza gave to Pedro Moya de Contreras, the first inquisitor of Mexico, who arrived in New Spain in 1571, what we know today as the Palace of the School of Medicine.
The inquisitors ordered the construction of a courtroom, a chamber of secrecy, a chapel, a courtroom, some chambers and a few prisons.
Alonso de Peralta, appointed inquisitor of New Spain in 1593, acquired a new home to house “the perpetual prison.” It was located on what is currently República de Venezuela Street.
This prison had its torture chamber, which survived for almost a century and a half, although not always in good condition: its dungeons were excessively humid, a fountain in the courtyard and the constant flooding of the city worsened its condition.
It was in 1732 when the inquisitors allowed the architect Pedro de Arrieta to carry out the project of replacing the inquisitorial houses with a building with a novel architecture. From 1732 to 1736 the headquarters of the Tribunal of the Holy Office was completely transformed.
Pedro de Arrieta proposed octaviating the corner and placing the main door there. This ingenious resource allowed it to be integrated into the Plaza de Santo Domingo.
Credits: (UNAM Foundation)
In 1820, the Tribunal ceased all its functions forever, the murmurs of its inquisitorial owners were no longer heard.
In the following decades it functioned as the headquarters of several institutions, until in 1854 it was sold to the professors of the National School of Medicine, who finally had a building exclusively for teaching.
When the school moved to Ciudad Universitaria in 1956, academies and medical societies remained in the palace, as well as the National School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Years later, in 1972, the Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine, the Historical Archive of the Faculty of Medicine and the Dr. Nicolás León Library moved. The Department currently occupies the buildings next to the Palacio de Medicina, known by the names “La Secondary” and “El Protomedicato”.
In 1980, the Historical Museum was created, currently the Museum of Mexican Medicine. Its rooms talk about pre-Hispanic and viceregal medicine, and herbalism.
Its collection deals with ophthalmology, radiology, histology, physiology, the understanding of skin diseases and the amazing plastic reconstruction, in short, the discovery of our anatomy, in flesh and blood.
And while the pieces murmur in each room, laboratory and office, a cultural program is carried out throughout the palace that feeds its endless history.
Designed for the university community, the Historic Center community and society in general, the activities include theater, music, dance, singing, painting, sculpture, performance, video, chronicle, oral narration and poetry for all visitors.
By Mónica Espinosa Vicens
Cultural Promotion and Diffusion
EEZ
1706009393
#Palace #School #Medicine #Palace #Inquisition