Museum sights in Guanajuato
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A
Alhóndiga de Granaditas
The site of the first major rebel victory in Mexico's War of Independence, Alhóndiga de Granaditas is now a history and art museum. Originally a massive grain-and-seed storehouse built between 1798 and 1808, the Alhóndiga became a fortress for Spanish troops and loyalist leaders in 1810. They barricaded themselves inside when 20,000 rebels led by Miguel Hidalgo attempted to take Guanajuato.
Just when it looked as though the outnumbered Spaniards would hold out, a young miner named Juan José de los Reyes Martínez (aka El Pípila), under orders from Hidalgo, tied a stone slab to his back and, protected from Spanish bullets, set the gates ablaze. The Spaniards choked on sm…
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B
Museo de las Momias
The famous Museum of the Mummies at the panteón (cemetery) is a quintessential example of Mexico's obsession with death. Visitors from all over come to see scores of corpses disinterred from the public cemetery. The first remains were dug up in 1865, when it was necessary to remove some bodies from the cemetery to make room for more. What the authorities uncovered were not skeletons but flesh mummified with grotesque forms and facial expressions.
The mineral content of the soil and extremely dry atmosphere had combined to preserve the bodies in this unique way.
Today, more than 100 mummies are on display in the museum, including the first mummy to be discovered, the 'sma…
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C
Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato
Located beside the university, this fascinating art museum displays an exquisite collection of Mexican miniatures, and 18th- and 19th-century art with works by Guanajuatan painters Hermenegildo Bustos and José Chávez Morado, plus temporary exhibitions. The museum occupies the former mansion of the Marqueses de San Juan de Rayas, who owned the San Juan de Rayas mine. The private church upstairs in the courtyard contains a mural by José Chávez Morado.
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D
Museo Iconográfico del Quijote
This excellent and surprisingly interesting museum fronts the tiny plaza in front of the Templo de San Francisco. Every exhibit relates to Don Quixote de la Mancha, the notorious Spanish literary hero. Paintings, statues, tapestries, clocks and even chess sets feature the quixotic icon and his bumbling companion Sancho Panza.
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