Alhóndiga de Granaditas

The Alhóndiga de Granaditas began as a colonial grain and seed exchange, built between 1798 and 1809 by architect Jose Damian Ortiz de Castro to stabilize maize prices in Guanajuato. On September 28, 1810, only days after Miguel Hidalgo's call to arms in Dolores, royalist forces and wealthy families barricaded themselves inside the massive stone building. Insurgent miners led by Juan Jose de los Reyes Martinez, known as 'El Pipila,' strapped a flagstone to his back for protection, crawled to the wooden main door, set it ablaze, and allowed thousands of insurgents to storm the building in the first major military victory of the Mexican War of Independence. The building's thick masonry walls, corner towers, and interior courtyard reflect its original defensive, warehouse-like construction rather than ornamental colonial architecture. After the insurgent defeat in 1811, the severed heads of Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and Jimenez were displayed in iron cages on the building's four corners for a decade as a warning to rebels. The structure now operates as the Museo Regional de Guanajuato, presenting the region's history chronologically from pre-Hispanic Chupicuaro culture through the colonial silver-mining era to the independence insurgency, using murals by Jose Chavez Morado, archaeological pieces, and period arms and documents displayed in the original grain-storage halls. Restoration work through the 20th century converted the warehouse floors into museum galleries while preserving the exterior stonework and the corner towers where the insurgent leaders' heads were once hung.