Hospicio Cabañas (Museo Cabañas)
UNESCO-listed neoclassical hospice with Orozco's 1930s fresco cycle and a modern art museum.
The Hospicio Cabañas was founded in 1791 by Bishop Juan Ruiz de Cabañas as a combined hospital, workhouse and orphanage for the poor of Guadalajara. Manuel Tolsá, the Valencian sculptor and architect then working in Mexico City, drew up the neoclassical plan: a single-storey complex measuring 164 by 145 metres, arranged around a series of courtyards with a domed chapel at its centre. Building began in 1796 and continued in stages until 1829. The institution sheltered children until 1980 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.
Since the 1980s the complex has housed the Cabañas Museum, whose galleries surround the former chapel. Between 1936 and 1939 José Clemente Orozco covered its walls, vaults and 32.5-metre dome with a cycle of frescoes on the conquest of Mexico, culminating in The Man of Fire on the cupola. The museum keeps a large holding of Orozco's drawings, lithographs and easel paintings, and mounts changing exhibitions of modern and contemporary art in the surrounding wings. Benches and mirrors beneath the dome allow the ceiling to be studied at length.
Highlights
- Orozco's fresco cycle of 1936–39, crowned by The Man of Fire in the dome
- Manuel Tolsá's single-storey neoclassical plan of linked courtyards
- UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1997
- Permanent holding of Orozco drawings, lithographs and easel paintings
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
