MUSEO RAFAEL CORONEL

It was from this former convent of San Francisco (founded in 1583) that many expeditions and missions set out for territories as far away as present-day Texas, Arizona and Colorado. In 1857, the Franciscan monks were forced to abandon the site, which was looted or sold as rubble for new buildings in the city. It was not until 1987 that restoration work began on the complex. The vaulted stone rooms now house the museum of Diego Rivera's son-in-law, a jewel of colonial art with beautiful gardens. Its collections of popular art are exceptional with, among others, more than ten thousand Mexican masks from various regions and periods, which allow to grasp the richness of the representation systems of the country. There are also four hundred puppets from the 19th and 20th centuries that belonged to one of the greatest travelling theatres of its kind: the Roseta Aranda Company, considered one of the most important in the world at the beginning of the 20th century. The room with the pre-Hispanic works is a must-see: the statuary is classified according to cultures, styles and periods, and the brief and synthetic explanations make it possible to learn a lot without getting confused. The room dedicated to the terracotta, small sculptures used in traditional medicine in the central valleys of the country, is also worth mentioning. A real cabinet of curiosities with an attractive scenography. To be seen.