#TurismoMacabro: Museo Panteón de San Fernando

By: Casandra Vicario.

One of the most beautiful places to visit in Mexico City is without a doubt the Museo Panteón de San Fernando. This area, in its early years, was part of a convent, in the 18th century.

In 1860, part of the complex was torn down; only the church and the cemetery survived, where the remains of men so important to our country rest, such as Benito Juárez and his wife Margarita Maza, Ignacio Comonfort, Miguel Miramón, Francisco González Bocanegra, Vicente Guerrero, and others.

In its best years, the Panteón de San Fernando, being a small, clean, and orderly place, was chosen by upper-class families for the eternal rest of many of their relatives; as a result, the prices for a plot kept rising, until it finally became a cemetery that only the very wealthy could access — which is why so many politicians and other very important figures from the country are buried there.

One of the curious facts about the place is the plaque located in niche 19 bearing the name of Isadora Duncan, a world-famous dancer who never once visited the country, but who has had a plaque in this cemetery since 1927; it is suspected that those responsible were either her Mexican followers or Plutarco Elías Calles.

In 1936, the Panteón de San Fernando was declared a Historic Monument by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; in 1968, on the occasion of the Olympics, it underwent a restoration, and in 2006 it was classified as a Museum, remaining open to the general public ever since.

Today, the Museo Panteón de San Fernando offers guided tours, lectures, book presentations, and, of course, film screenings very much in the style of the Festival Macabro.

Those interested in a guided tour should visit the page: www.cultura.df.gob.mx (abre en nueva pestaña), where the service is offered all month from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and once a month there is the possibility of a themed nighttime visit. Couldn't be better!