Municipal archive
Why is it important
The Municipal Archive is a monumental building which has adopted religious and military characteristics since the day it was built; it has two great heaps: a documentary one and the architectural one, both trace from the past. It propitiates the population to approach to the local history because it constitutes an important information source.
How to get there
It is located on the 48 of Calle 63, between Calle 16 and Calle 18, in the historical center of Campeche City.
History
The Municipal Archive begins in 1812, because Lauret Graff, the pirate, had previously destroyed it in 1685 and many important documents where lost.
In early XIX century the edifice became an hospice and received the name of "The Hospitium"; afterwards it became "La Escuela de la Misericoridia" (Mercifulness School), and years later it became "La Escuela Lancasteriana de Campeche" (Lancasterian School of Campeche) which was some kind of primary school which trained the pupils with preliminary and elementary concepts preparing them to enroll to the San Miguel de Estrada Seminary.
On June 27th, 1845 after remodeling the place the building was inaugurated as the Jail of the City. The exact date when the edifice stopped being used for that purpose is yet unknown. Nowadays, since the restoration activities held on 1994 it has been used as the Municipal Archive.
Description
It is a one level edifice with a simple facade and four windows on the right side of the access, two of them in a vertical position and the other two in a horizontal position.
On the left side of the access there are three horizontal windows and a water closet which was built in 1860 when the building served as the City Jail. The central door is formed by an arch limited with pilasters and capitols which end in a double slim molding and above it there is a great cornice.
After the cornice two simulated pilasters and capitols continue until they end contacting the upper cornice, which go all along the wall of the long lasting cannon of the City.
Between the simulated pilasters and the upper cornice there is a place with a date inscription "AD 1804" which possibly corresponds to the date when the building’s construction ended. As the portal’s pinnacle, there is a belfry in a bell shape with a molding surrounding it; on the inside there is an empty niche and finials with a limestone cross.
The inside of the building is formed by a patio and a surrounding corridor on three of its sides, the corridors are limited by arches with wide corridors and lodgings. Nowadays there is a permanent cannon exposition along the corridors and the rooms serve as offices.
Information Source
Pérez Galaz, Juan de D. Diccionario Geográfico e Histórico de Campeche. Campeche; Gobierno del Estado de Campeche, 1944. 68-72.
Suárez Aguilar, Vicente y heber Ojeda Mas. Arqueología Histórica en la Ciudad de Campeche. Campeche: universidad Autónoma de Campeche. 1996. 74-169.