Casa de los Once Patios

The Casa de los Once Patios was built in 1742 as a convent for Dominican nuns, its name referring to the eleven interconnected courtyards originally laid out within the complex, of which five survive intact today following later subdivision and partial demolition. The surviving architecture includes a baroque stone portal at the main entrance, a fountain set within the western corridor, and an unusually well-preserved colonial-era bathing room, a rare surviving example of convent domestic infrastructure from the period. Rather than functioning as a museum, the building now houses a working complex of artisan workshops and shops, continuing the tradition of craft specialization that Vasco de Quiroga organized among Purépecha villages around Lake Pátzcuaro in the 16th century, under which particular towns became known for particular crafts such as lacquerware, copperwork or textiles. Workshops inside the complex sell and demonstrate lacquerware, textiles, guitars, copperwork and other regional crafts, giving visitors a direct link between the colonial building and the living craft economy it now supports. The layered courtyards, connected by narrow passages and stairways, preserve a sense of the convent's original cloistered circulation even though the religious community that built it has long since left the site. Conservation work has focused on structural stabilization of the surviving five patios and the baroque portal, while the interiors of individual workshop spaces have been adapted freely by their occupant artisans, meaning the building presents a mix of preserved colonial fabric and contemporary commercial use rather than a single frozen-in-time interior.