Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas

Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas traces its origins to the 16th century, built on land within the vast Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca granted to Hernán Cortés after the conquest, and developed over subsequent centuries into one of the major sugar-producing estates of the Cuernavaca-Amacuzac corridor. During the Mexican Revolution, the hacienda served as a headquarters for Zapatista forces operating in southern Morelos, a period that, as at many of the state's haciendas, left the estate partially damaged before it passed out of large-scale agricultural production following the post-Revolutionary land-reform era. In the late 20th century the property was restored and converted into a boutique hotel, a transformation that preserved rather than demolished its historic core: the original 17th-century chapel remains consecrated and in occasional use, and the ruins of the sugar mill, including sections of the aqueduct that once carried water to power the mill machinery, are maintained as part of the grounds rather than cleared for new construction. The restoration retained much of the hacienda's original stone-and-adobe construction, arched colonnades, and interior courtyards, giving visitors and overnight guests a direct sense of the estate's colonial-era agricultural architecture alongside its later revolutionary history. The hacienda's conversion reflects a broader pattern across Morelos, where former sugar estates tied to Cortés's original land grant and later damaged during the Revolution have been adapted into hotels and event venues rather than left in ruin.