National Palace (Mexico)

19°25′57″N 99°7′52″W

The National Palace in Mexico City

Part of Diego Rivera's mural depicting Mexico's history in the main stairwell.

The National Palace is the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located in Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución (El Zócalo).

The Nacional Palace (Palacio Nacional in Spanish), with its red tezontle façade, fills the entire east side of the Zocalo,, measuring over 200 meters long.It is home to the offices of the president of Mexico, the Federal Treasury and and office of the National Archives. The façade is bordered on the north and south by two towers and include three main doorway, each of which lead to a different part of the building.

The southern door leads to the Patio of Honor and presidential offices (no public access).

The northern door is known as the Mariana Door, named in honor of Mariano Arista who had it constructed in 1850. The area corresponding to this door used to be the old Court Prison, with courtrooms and torture chambers. It is now occupied by the Finance Ministry. It contains the Treasury Room, constructed by architects Manuel Ortiz Monasterio and Vicente Mendiola. The iron and bronze door is the work of Augusto Petriccioli.

Just past the Treasury Room is the Empress Stairway, built by brothers Juan and Ramon Agea. When faced with claims that their work was unstable and would collapse, they had a full battalion charge down them while they stood underneath. Past the stairs is the statue of Benito Juarez by Miguel Noreña at the intersection leading to the Finance Ministry patio. This work was criticized at the time because it was felt that such an honored person should not be depicted sitting on his coattails, as it was contrary to social etiquette at the time. In the Finance Ministry patio is the Benito Juarez Room, where this president lived during the end of his term and where he died on July 18, 1872. The bedroom, living room and study have been preserved complete with a number of objects belonging to the president.

Above the central doorway, facing the Zocalo, is the balcony where just before 11 pm on September 15, the president of Mexico give the Grito de Dolores, in a ceremony to commemorate Mexican Independence. Part of this ceremony includes ringing the bell that hangs above the balcony. This bell is the original one that Father Miguel Hidalgo rang to call for rebellion against Spain. It originally hung in the church of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato but was relocated here. In the niche containing the bell, there is the Mexican coat-of-arms. On each side there is an Aztec eagle knight and his Spanish counterpart. These were sculpted by Manuel Centurion and symbolize the synthesis of Mexican culture.

The central door leads to the main patio which is surrounded by Baroque arches. Only the balustrade of this area has been remodeled, conserving the murals by Diego Rivera that adorn the main stairwell and the walls of the second floor. In the stairwell is a mural depicting the history of Mexico from 1521 to 1930, and covers an area of 450 sq. m (4837 sq. ft).(planetware) These murals were painted between 1929 and 1935, jointly titled “The Epic of the Mexican People”. The work is divided like a triptych with each being somewhat autonomous. The right-hand wall contains murals depicting pre-Hispanic Mexico and centers around the life of the Aztec god Quetzalcoátl. Quetzalcoatl appears as a threefold shape of star, god, and human being. Created by serpents, he sails through space as a star that accompanies the sun at night. Quetzalcoatl assumes a human body to teach the Aztec people as their king and patriarch. When he sacrifices his blood to give life to men, he returns to the sky having completed his earthly cycle. Once he leaves the earth, Quetzalcoatl assumes the shape the morning star, called Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. The cycle that he undergoes signifies the continuous cycle of life. Rivera's creation of a Mexican identity helps to continue the reform that began with the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Before this time, any individualism from the Indians was discouraged as well as any allusion toward the Aztec origins. The mural aims to dismisses any idea of inferiority.

In the middle and largest panel, it depicts the Conquest with its ugliness, such as rape and torture, as well as priests defending the rights of the indigenous. The battle for Independence occupies middle of three arches. The American and French invasions are represented, as well as the Reform period and the Revolution. The left-hand panel is dedicated to what was then the present, criticizing the status quo and depicting a Marxist kind of utopia, featuring the persons of Plutarch Elias Calles, John D. Rockefeller, Harry Sinclair, William Durant, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbuilt and Andrew Mellon as well as Karl Marx himself. This part of the mural also includes Frida Kahlo, Diego’s wife. This mural reflects Diego’s own personal views about Mexico’s history and the indigenous people of the country in particular.

Diego also painted 11 panels on the middle floor, such as the “Tianguis of Tlatelolco” (tianguis means “market”), and the “Arrival of Hernan Cortes in Veracruz”. These are part of a series depicting the pre-Hispanic era. Peoples such as the Tarascos of Michoacan, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs of Oaxaca and the Huastecs of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Veracruz. However, this series was not finished.

On the upper floor is what once was the Theatre Room of the viceroys, which became the Chamber of Deputies from 1829 to August 22, 1872, when the room was accidentally destroyed by fire. In this parliamentary chamber the Reform Constitution of 1857 was written. This and the Constitution of 1917 are on display.

The Palace has fourteen courtyards but only a few of these, such as the Grand Courtyard beyond the central portal, are open to the public. The National Palace also houses the main State Archives, with many interesting historical documents, and the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, one of the largest and most important libraries in the country.

History of the building

The site and much of the building material of the current building is of what were called Moctezuma II's "New Houses". This palace functioned as the Aztec tlatoani's residence and performed a number of official functions as well. The building divided into two sections and was decorated with marble and painted stucco. The main facade contained the shield of the monarchy, an eagle with a tiger in its claws. It has three patios surrounded by porticos, indoor sanitary facilities, fountains and gardens. The bedrooms had [[tapestries of cotton, feathers and rabbit fur painted in bright colors. The floors were of polished stucco ad covered in animal furs adn finely-weaved mats. There were rooms for servants, administrative staff, and military guards, kitchens, pantries and storage rooms. The richness of the palace surprised Cortes, which he relayed in letters to Charles V of Spain.

The palace also held a chamber reserved for the "Tlacxitlan" where a group of elders, presided over by the emperor himself, would settle disputes among the citzenry. After the Conquest, these New Houses were not completely leveled to the ground but were sufficiently destroyed as to make them uninhabitable.

The land and the buildings on it were claimed by Hernan Cortes and were modified by architects Rodrigo de Pontocillos and Juan Rodriguez, while Cortes lived in the "Old Houses" across the plaza until 1530. Cortes had the existed palace rebuilt in 1521 with a large courtyard so he could entertain visitors with New Spain’s first recorded bullfights. The Spanish crown bought palace from the Cortes family in 1562 to house the Viceregal Palace. It remained so until Mexican Independence in the 1820’s.

Due to tensions between the viceroy and the archbishop, the palace was set on fire by supporters of the archbishop in 1624. Four years later in 1628, the palace was virtually razed to the ground by a mob because of famine and bad treatment by authorities. Friar Diego Valverde was then in charge of reconstructing the palace. Historian Manuel Rivera Cambas states that after reconstruction, the palace lost its fortress-like appearance the old one had with its battlements with cannon.

Between 1926 and 1929, the third floor was added during the term of President Calles by Alberto J. Pani, an engineer and then-finance minister and designed by Augusto Petriccioli.

The palace was home to the three emperors who ruled Mexico during brief periods: Agustin de Iturbide, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and Maximilian of Hapsburg. The first Republican to live in the building was Mexico’s first president, Guadalupe Victoria and its last occupant was Manuel Gonzalez, president from 1880 to 1884. Famous people who stayed here include Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mateo Alemán, Friar Servando de Mier (he also died here), Alexander von Humboldt and Simón Bolivar.

Recently, excavations in and next door the National Palace have unearthed parts of Moctezuma’s “New Houses”, the name of the palaces that Hernan Cortes razed to build what has become current edifice. Parts of a wall and a basalt floor were found during recent renovations on the building that now houses the Museum of Culture, which adjoins the Palace on its north side. The wall and floor are believed to be part of Casa Denegrida, or the Black House, which Spanish conquerors described as a windowless room painted in black. In here, Moctezuma would meditate on what he was told by professional seers and shamans. It was part of a construction which is thought to have comprised of five interconnected buildings containing the emperor's office, chambers for children and several wives and even a zoo. More excavations are planned.

The building’s significance

The webpage of past president Ernesto Zedillo, Carlos Fuentes calls the National Palace a “traveling and an immobile construction” Traveling in the sense that much of it architectural style is Spanish in origin and symbolized the transplantation of Spanish civilization to the New World. It is immobile in the sense that since Aztec times, this has been the seat of earthly political power, first as the palaces of the Aztec Tlatoani, then of the Spanish viceroys, then of Mexican heads of state. Only until very recently, those who held power over Mexico lived here as well as asserted their authority.

The building itself represents the Mexican people as a blending of both Spanish and Aztec. The old palace was destroyed to make way to the new, but both were built of the very same stone. According to Zedillo, this represents something that is not quite Aztec, but not quite Spanish either, much like the country itself. These same stones were present during all of Mexico’s major historical events and had seen foreign flags fly above it.

On the eve of Mexican Independence Day, the National Palace is the star of the show. The original bell Father Hidalgo rang is here and the President himself gives the Grito de Dolores from its main balcony. He also notes one such Independence Eve, in 1964, when General Charles de Gaulle, then-President of France, spoke to the crowd in Spanish from the Palace. He notes this to assert that the Palace is not only a place but also a destination where friends of the country can be welcomed.