Palace of the Inquisition

The Palace of the Inquisition stands on the corner of Republica de Brasil and Republica de Venezuela streets in Mexico City, Mexico. While neither side of the building faces the Santo Domingo Plaza, the entrance does, as it is placed at the corner, which is canted to allow it to face in that direction. Its long association with the Inquisition, which ended during the Mexican War of Independence, made it difficult to convert to other purposes. However, it eventually became the School of Medicine for the reconstructed National University (now the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)). When UNAM moved to the Ciudad Universitaria in the 1950s, it retained ownership of this building, eventually converting the structure in what is today the Museum of Mexican Medicine.

From nearly the beginning of the colonial period until the Mexican War of Independence, this spot has been the headquarters of the Inquisition in the colony of New Spain. While the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition was not fully established here until 1571, the first cleric with inquisitorial duties was Martin de Valencia, who came to the colony in 1524. The Dominicans, in whom the papacy had invested Inquisition duties, arrived in 1526 and proceeded to build a monastery in the area occupied by both the current Palace and the Church of Santo Domingo. The first official Inquisitor for the colony, Pedro Moya de Contreras, worked in the section of the monastery where the later, 18th century Palace would be built.

The Inquisition was officially established here due to a 1566 conspiracy led by Martin Cortes, son of Hernán Cortés, threatened to make the new colony independent of Spain. The plot was denounced by Baltazar de Aguilar Cervantes and Inquisition trials of various Creoles began. The accused were subject to torture and harsh sentences, especially when before a magistrate by the name of Muñoz. The first victims of this series of trials were the brothers Alonso and Gil Gonzalez de Alvila Alvarado. Despite having the sympathy of the local citizens and of the chroniclers, both brothers were convicted. Their punishment was to be decapitated, and their house, located on part of the site of the Templo Mayor, was razed to the ground, and the site sown with salt

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