The building of the Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, located in the heart of the city of Morelia, was built in the seventeenth century during the viceroyalty period and has since functioned as an educational institution, first under the name of Real Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo and later as Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. It was one of the most important study centres in New Spain. It currently houses a high school dependent on the Universidad Michoacana.
In this place he studied, taught and was the rector Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who contributed to making the school an avant-garde place in the artistic and scientific aspects. The building underwent various reconstructions throughout its life, although the façade managed to preserve a certain sober baroque style, which harmonizes with the rest of the surrounding buildings. The school had two types of students: boarders, who were Spanish and lived there, and outsiders, who were indigenous and mestizo, whose parents had worked on the construction of the building that housed the institution in Patzcuaro. Thus, its function was to acculturate the indigenous population in the foreground.
In 1887, President Porfirio Díaz donated the monument dedicated to Miguel Hidalgo to the school, which since then has been the center of the main courtyard. The monument was inaugurated on September 15 of that year as part of the commemorative celebrations of National Independence. The statue is the work of the sculptor Primitivo Miranda and the pedestal of the engineer Gustavo Roth.
In 1930 the building of the Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo was declared a National Monument. In 1932 the two murals located on the side walls of the second floor of the building were painted, one entitled “The defence of sovereignty” and the other entitled “The Constitution of Apatzingán”, both by the artist Fermín Revueltas, originally from the state of Durango. In 1934, the mural entitled “The Life of the Tarascan People” was painted on the front wall on the second floor of the schoolyard courtyard by artist Marion Greenwood.
Some of the school’s outstanding students are Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, José María Morelos y Pavón, Ignacio López Rayón, José Sixto Verduzco, José María Izazaga and Melchor Ocampo, whose heart, books and other objects that belonged to this naturalist, politician and ideologue of the Reformation era are preserved in the room that bears his name.
Schedule: Monday to Friday during school hours, Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 to 17:00 hrs.
Location: Avenida Francisco I. Madero Poniente, Historic Center, 58000 Morelia, Michoacán.
Contact: 01 (443) 312 01 67