Casa Chihuahua Centro de Patrimonio Cultural, Museum in central Chihuahua City, Mexico.
Casa Chihuahua is a museum housed in a neoclassical building with French Beaux-Arts architecture, distinguished by columns at the main entrance and several exhibition areas. The interior provides space for rotating collections and presentations that showcase regional history and crafts.
The site held the Jesuit College of Our Lady of Loreto until the Jesuits' expulsion in 1767; the building then became a Royal Military Hospital, where Miguel Hidalgo was imprisoned in 1811. In 1878 the college was razed, except the tower of his confinement, and a branch mint operated here. The mint was demolished in 1908 and the Federal Palace, inaugurated in 1910, replaced it.
The basement site museum traces the plot from the Jesuit college of Nuestra Señora de Loreto through the royal military hospital and the Casa de Moneda to the present. It keeps the tower where Miguel Hidalgo was held, at ground level in the original building, and screens a video recreating his last months.
The museum occupies the former Federal Palace in the city centre, a short walk from the Government Palace and the cathedral. Its three areas are spread over the basement, first floor and upper floor, so allow time to move between levels. The site museum and Hidalgo's cell are in the basement.
The tower where Hidalgo was held was not originally underground: it stood at ground level and was moved to the basement when the college was razed in 1878, spared by decree of President Benito Juárez. The main facade carries the dates 1811 and 1910, marking Hidalgo's death and the palace's inauguration.
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