Day 4
Travel log
Independence tour
MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO
With almost 150 years of history, the Mummies of Guanajuato have become part of our own culture and our traditions.
In 1865 was extracted the first mummified body that lay in the pantheon of Santa Paula, as the years pass, other bodies were discovered in the same conditions by the characteristics of the soil on which they rested. Today, more than a hundred mummies are part of the inventory of the Museum created in his honor.
The astonishment that the mummies awaken among the people, have been the cause of the innumerable films with characters of the Mexican wrestling that during the decade of the Seventies made the images of Mexican mummies were known in other countries.
The Guanajuato Mummies are fully integrated into the culture of Guanajuato´s people, from the historical and social point of view, the mummies represent different stages that have allowed this city to consolidate itself as a major national tourist destination.
Preserving and increasing the cultural heritage surrounding the legacy of mummies has also been the subject of careful scientific studies by specialists in forensic medicine and anthropology from the United States of America.
These scientists have studied mummies in other parts of the world and in Guanajuato are applying advanced techniques that will result in the enrichment of the museographic archive as it will be possible to know the possible causes of death, approximate ages, social environment and even the facial reconstruction of the mummified bodies.
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ALHONDIGA DE GRANADITAS
The Alhondiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato is a historical building, monument and regional history and art museum built between 1798 and 1809. Alhondiga means “grain storehouse or market”, and the building originally housed a large grain and seed storehouse, or granary.
In 1810, the building became a fortress for Spanish troops and loyalist leaders and the site of the first major victory over the Spanish. Under the command of Miguel Hidalgo, a local miner by the name of Jose de los Reyes Martinez, nicknamed El Pipila, tied a large stone to his back to deflect bullets and breached the Spanish defenses by burning down the fortress doors.
Hidalgo’s troops were victorious, and a statue and monument to honor El Pipila was erected on a hillside overlooking Guanajuato. The hilltop monument and Guanajuato attraction can be accessed via a funicular that runs up the hillside from the Jardin de la Union, or central plaza.
Spanish-owned mining operations had brought great prosperity to the region, and the Mexican Independence movement continued to face significant opposition in colonial Guanajuato. Revolutionary leaders Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Jimenez were eventually captured and beheaded, their heads hung from the four corners of the Alhondiga de Granaditas.
In 1864, the Alhondiga de Granaditas building was converted into a prison, and in 1967, it became the Museo Regional de Guanajuato (Regional Museum of Guanajuato). The museum houses exhibits on colonial history, precolumbian artifacts and regional crafts. Murals in the staircase created by Jose Chavez Morado depict the history of the colonial era and the region’s role in the struggle for Mexican Independence.
Attached to one side of the building is a large plaza with a wide staircase that’s used as an open-air auditorium and hosts live performances during the city’s annual International Cervantes Festival, the most important event of the year for Guanajuato tourism.
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