Casa del Marqués, Historical building in central Puebla, Mexico

Casa del Marqués is a two-level building whose wide courtyard is enclosed on all four sides by convent-style arcades, with a fountain at the centre. The facade was remodelled in the 19th century but still keeps 17th-century carved stonework.

Built in the 16th century, the house passed in 1572 to Juan Daza de Silva and María Pizarro, who gave it as their daughter Magdalena's dowry when she married the Portuguese noble Gaspar Gomes de Vasconcelos. It later belonged to Francisco Javier de Vasconcelos y Bravo de Lagunas, first Marquis of Monserrate, and between 1839 and 1928 served as a coaching inn. In 1985 the university installed the Preparatoria Emiliano Zapata here.

The building shows Spanish colonial style mixed with Mexican traditions in its stone carvings and courtyard layout. When you walk through the spaces, you can see how these two cultures came together in the design and decoration.

The building sits in the historic centre of Puebla, at the coordinates 19.04335, -98.19512. Its two levels open onto a courtyard ringed by arcades on all four sides, with a fountain at the centre; the 19th-century facade still keeps 17th-century carved stone. Since 2026 it houses the university's Técnico Superior Universitario en Música, so access depends on the institution's activities.

On November 8, 1851, the first telegram in Mexican history arrived here, sent by president-elect Mariano Arista. This moment marked Puebla's place in the arrival of modern communication to Mexico.