Casa De Los Azulejos, Mexico City

The Casa de los Azulejos or "House of Tiles" is an 18th century palace in Mexico City, built by the Count del Valle de Orizaba family. What makes this palace, in the City of Palaces, distinctive is that its facade on three sides is completely covered in the expensive blue and white tile of Puebla state. The palace remained in private hands until near the end of the 19th century. It changed handsseveral times before being bought by the Sanborns brothers who expanded their soda fountain/drugstore business into one of the best-recognized restaurant chains in Mexico. The house today serves as their flagship restaurant.[1][2]
Contents
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* 1 The building of the house
* 2 The tile facade
* 3 The rest of the house
* 4 18th to early 20th century
* 5 Sanborns* 6 References

[edit] The building of the house

The house is currently on the Callejón de la Condesa, between 5 de Mayo Street and what is now Madero Street. Madero Street was laid out in the 16th century and originally called San Francisco Street, after the church and monastery here. Later it was called Plateros Street, because of all the silver miners and silversmiths located here. Fromthe 16th century through most of the colonial period, it was one of the most desirable streets in the city.[1][2] Before 1793, there were two houses on this site, which were joined through the merger of two creole families of New Spain, when Graciana Suárez Peredo and the second Count del Valle de Orizaba married. Both families were very rich and held noble titles. The current structure was begunin 1793, with much the same dimensions and shape as it has today, but no tiles.[1][2]

The mansion was remodeled a bit later, adding the covering of blue and white tiles. This caused a sensation and gave the house its popular name.[1][3]
[edit] The tile facade

There are two conflicting explanations of how this building got its current appearance. The more reliable version states that thefifth Countess Del Valle de Orizaba, who resided in Puebla, decided to return to the capital after her husband’s death and remodeled the house with Puebla tile in 1737, to show the family’s immense wealth.[1][4][5] The other version is more colorful and tells of a son whose lifestyle caused his father to state that if he didn’t change his ways he would “never build his house of tiles,”[3] meaning thathe would never amount to anything. As an act of defiance, the young man had the tiles put on when he inherited the house.[3][4] These tiles cover the three exposed facades of the house on both levels.[3]
[edit] The rest of the house
The peacock mural side of the courtyard.

The overwhelming aspect of the outside of the house are the blue and white tiles from Puebla that cover it on threesides. Its windows, balconies and doors are framed in carved stone and French porcelain crowns on the Callejón de la Condesa and Madero Street facades.[1][3] Inside, the main courtyard contains a fountain crowned with mosaics. This fountain is surrounded by highly decorated columns and topped with more French porcelain crowns as well as a stained glass roof that was added in the 20th century. Both thefountain and columns show some damage. On the second floor, the courtyard railings are made of copper; some made in China and some made in Mexico. The overall look to the courtyard is generally Baroque but also somewhat Oriental or Moorish.[1]

There are two large murals in the interior. The first one is a peacock mural by Romanian painter Pacologue done in 1919. In the main stairway is one ofthe earliest works by José Clemente Orozco titled Omniscience and done in 1925. The three symbolic figures appearing in it represent masculine values, with their feminine counterparts and Grace presiding over them both. According to chronicler and poet Salvador Novo, the torso in the center was later copied by Orozco in the work called Prometheus at Pomona College. On the second floor, the...