If you read about my visit to the Sacred Museum of Caracas, you may remember that I mentioned there that the entrance to the Museum also included a visit to the Archbishop's Palace. So today, I invite you to join me on this little tour.
After leaving the museum and entertaining ourselves for a while watching the squirrels, we continued our visit.
The Archbishop's Palace was built in colonial times as a residence for the bishops of Caracas. And now, its first floor is open to the public.
The building is striking for its yellow color. It is almost diagonal to the sacred museum and in front of the Plaza Bolivar on the corner of Gradillas.
Upon entering, you find one of the interior patios of the building. This type of patio was typical in the houses of the colonial era.
Interior courtyards in colonial buildings are usually surrounded by corridors. And the corridors of the Archbishop's Palace are wide. And in some parts of the walls, you can see vestiges of the original construction.
The first room we visited was dedicated to Jose Gregorio Hernadez, who was a Venezuelan physician known for his great contributions to medicine but also his philanthropy.
He is a figure who has many devotees and to whom his faithful devotees attribute miracles. He was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2021.
In the two rooms dedicated to him, some writings were documenting his miracles and some personal objects that belonged to him.
Another inner courtyard with some sculptures. In one corner of the corridor of this courtyard, there was a narrow wooden staircase in the form of a spiral, but it wasn't allowed to climb it.
Then there was a room dedicated to a bishop from colonial times named Mariano Marti. To be honest, it was the first time in my life that I knew about him. But apparently, he played an important role at that time in documenting the history and evangelization of these lands.
In the room, there are exposed some works of art, documentation of the time, and clothing worn by the bishop.
Something that caught my attention, and seemed funny was some of the providences that were rooted in the popular belief of the time that he reviews in some of his writings.
The ones that made me laugh were
- If a marriage is contracted on a Tuesday, the bride and groom will suffer dire consequences.
- During Holy Week, bathing should be avoided.
- Those who stopped combing their hair every Friday of the year avoided bad luck.
Y el primero me hizo pensar en el dicho asociado al martes 13. En Martes ni te cases, ni te embarques, ni de te tu casa te apartes (On Tuesday, neither marry, nor sail, nor depart from your home) For Hispanics, Friday the 13th is not the day of bad luck, but Tuesday the 13th.
And researching a little more, and since ancient times, Tuesday was considered a day of bad omens. And in popular belief a bad day to accomplish important stuff.
And well, on Fridays from now on, I won't comb my hair just in case, lol.
In that room, there was an internal window to the first courtyard I showed you.
There were a couple of additional rooms related to other figures of the Venezuelan Church and history, but I did not photograph them. And the two that caught my attention were the ones I shared.
The visit is very short. There is not much to see, and I would tell you if you had to pay to see it that it is not worth it. But as a complement to the visit to the Sacred Museum, it is ok to visit it.
Thank you for reading.
All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.
© CoquiCoin
February 27, 2023
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