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Discover the Hotel de Mendoza, which was constructed next to an ancient nunnery called the Santa Maria de Gracia Convent.
Hotel de Mendoza was constructed between the 14th and 17th centuries, in which novel approaches to art and science spread throughout Europe.
The Santa Maria de Gracia Convent opened on August 17, 1588 on the site now occupied by the Corona Market. On November 13, 1590, it was moved to where the San Miguel Archangel Chapel once resided. A map from the year 1724 show the Convent occupied five blocks. A nun of Santa Maria de Gracia Convent said in her 1904 description that the monastery occupied five blocks - three for the factory, one for the field, and one for the orchard. Built in the French-style architecture popular at that time, the factory was where the nuns lived. The Santa Maria de Gracia Convent lived in tranquility until the Reform War broke out between the Conservatives and Liberals. The Reform Laws, enacted on July 12, 1859, established the separation of Church and State and enacted nationalization of church property. By 1863, the government was the owner of the orchard and it was divided into many parts.
Bishop José Garibi Rivera decreed the church to the nuns on September 22, 1930. In 1942, during the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city, at the request of Bishop Joseph Garibi Rivera to President Avila Camacho, an exhibition of religious art took place, and since then, the church has belonged to the clergy. In 1945, the 30-room Degollado Hotel was built next to the Santa Maria de Gracia Church. It eventually closed at the end of 1950 and construction of the current Hotel de Mendoza began. Hotel de Mendoza was subsequently inaugurated in 1968. The front wall and the adjoining wall to the church were part of the original convent.