MuseumVirreinal de Guadalupe Museum and GalleryZacatecas

The Museo Virreinal de Guadalupe is located seven kilometers (4 mi) from Zacatecas, in the Jardin Juarez located in the main square in the town of Guadalupe (on the highway to Aguascalientes).

Here is where the invaluable cultural heritage of the Franciscans of the College of Propaganda of Our Lady of Guadalupe is conserved, researched, communicated and disseminated.

In 1908 the College was abolished by a Papal Bull, and remained closed until 1917 when it opened as the Museum of Antiquities from the former Guadalupe Convent, under the responsibility of Zacatecan painter Manuel Pastrana, becoming the first museum in the State of Zacatecas. It was declared a National Monument in 1939, and today is now in the hands of the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History).
The museum still has its original appearance, and 27 permanent exhibition rooms that are arranged in two main sections: the Historical Museum, which is a display of the monastic environment where the monks inhabited (oratorio, cell, cloister, choir, etc. ); and the Art Gallery, which has one of the largest Baroque collections(XVII and XVIII) and of Mexican paintings (XIX and XX), with works by Antonio de Torres, Jose Gabriel Ovalle and Miguel Cabrera, among others.

The upper and lower cloisters are covered respectively with paintings of the Passion of Christ, and the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  The library preserves over 10,000 valuable volumes that were part of the original College library.  And at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, joined with to the museum, you see the Naples Chapel. Built from 1850 to 1885, this chapel received its name because it houses an image of the Immaculate Conception that was sent from Naples by the wife of Philip V, Dona Isabel de Farnecio,
Since 2002, every September the museum has hosted the Baroque Festival de Guadalupe.

Open daily from 9:00 to 6:00 (except Dec 25 & Jan 1). Admission $ 41.00 pesos.

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