Museum of the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit

Brief information

This museum stands on a site where one power quite literally placed itself on top of another: the colonial Archbishop’s Palace was built on the base of the destroyed pyramid of Tezcatlipoca. As a result, the building reads not only as a former residence, but as a place where a pre-Hispanic foundation, church authority, and state finances ended up within a single structure.

Until 1867, archbishops lived here; afterward, the building housed the accounting department of the Ministry of Finance. Today it is an art museum with an exhibition about Tezcatlipoca and an art collection. One important detail: the remains of the pyramid have not been separated into a standalone story about the past; they can be seen on the ground floor of the building itself.

What to notice first

It makes sense to read the building through the meeting point of different eras. Two inner courtyards with stone columns recall the palace layout, while the cornice with inverted arches and crenellations shows what the complex became after many renovations and how, for the most part, it has survived to the present day.

The portal offers a more precise key: the niche is framed by two estipite columns, meaning tapering supports with a complex silhouette. The highest church authorities of the colonial period once passed through this entrance, so the decorative frame works here as a sign of former status. On the ground floor, it can be compared with the remains of the pyramid of Tezcatlipoca, uncovered during the building’s restoration. The additions also belong to this same change of functions: one was used for casting bells, another as a prison.