The Gertrudis Bocanegra Public Library in Patzcuaro
One of the most highly recommended places to visit in Pátzcuaro is La Biblioteca Pública Gertrudis Bocanegra (it so close, you can actually see it from the balconies of Hotel Mansión Iturbe). The original building was constructed in 1576 as an Augustinian Convent. Almost three hundred years later (1860), the State took control of it in 1882 and, in 1938, General Lázaro Cárdenas declared it the site for La Biblioteca Pública Gertrudis Bocanegra. In February 1941, the famous Juan O’Gorman began a monumental work that would take him a full year to complete: painting the huge, historical, floor-to-ceiling mural on the far (north) inside wall of the enormous library. Juan O’Gorman is known not only as a great muralist, but as a great architect, as well. He is attributed with intro...