Ube Cft^ of jfl&esiox 109 



left tower was placed the famous calendar stone, the most interesting 

 relic of Aztec culture, which is now at the National Museum. 



The east side of the plaza, is occupied by the old vice-regal resi- 

 dence, now the National Palace, with 675 feet frontage, containing 

 most of the Government offices, ministerial, cabinet, treasury, military 

 headquarters, archives, meteorological department with observatory, 

 and the spacious halls of ambassadors, with some remarkable paintings 

 by Miranda and native artists. North of the National Palace, and 

 forming portions of it, are the post-office and the national museum of 

 natural history and antiquities, with a priceless collection of Mexican 

 relics. 



Close to the cathedral stands the Monte de Piedad, or national 

 pawnshop, a useful institution, endowed in 1744 by Don Manuel 

 Romero de Terreros with $375,000, and now possessing nearly $10,- 

 000,000 of accumulated funds. Facing the cathedral is the Palacio 

 Municipal, or City Hall, 252 feet by 122, rebuilt in 1792 at a cost of 

 $150,000, and containing the city and district offices, and the mer- 

 chant's exchange. 



Around the Plaza San Domingo were grouped the convent of that 

 name, which contained vast treasures buried within its walls, the old 

 inquisition, now the school of medicine, and for some time the Custom 

 House, which has now been removed to the city boundary. In the 

 same neighborhood are the Church of the Jesuits and the School of 

 Arts, which is, in the language of Brocklehurst, " an immense work- 

 shop, including iron and brass foundries, carriage and cart mending, 

 building and masonry, various branches of joinery and upholstery 

 work, and silk and cotton hand-weaving." 



Other noteworthy buildings are the national picture gallery of San 

 Carlos, the finest in America, in which the Florentine and Flemish 

 schools are well represented, and which contains the famous Las Casas, 

 by Felix Parra ; the national library of St. Augustine, with over 200- 

 ooo volumes, numerous MSS., and many rare old Spanish books ; the 

 mint, 1 which since 1690 has issued coinage, chiefly silver, to the amount 

 of nearly $3,000,000,000 ; the Iturbide Hotel, formerly the residence of 

 the Emperor Iturbide ; the Mineria, or schools of mines, with lecture- 

 rooms, laboratories, rich mineralogical and geological specimens, and 

 a fossil horse, three feet high, of the Pleistocene period. 



1 The Spanish Government intended during last century to build a spacious, 

 costly, and magnificent mint in the City of Mexico, and its plans and specifications 

 were approved by the king, but by a mistake of the clerks in Madrid, they were 

 forwarded to Santiago, Chili, instead of being sent to the City of Mexico, and it was in 

 consequence built there. The building was so fine that, not having any mint at 

 Santiago, it was used as the Government House, and it is now the Executive Mansion 

 .and Departments, and it is called " La Moneda," an abbreviation of "La Casa de 

 Moneda," which is the Spanish name for mint. 



