The San Pedro y San Pablo College is a colonial church located in the historical center of Mexico City, Mexico.
Today the church section of the complex houses the Museum of the Constitutions of Mexico−Museo de las Constituciones. The former school section of the complex stretches along San Ildefonso Street to Republica de Venezuela Street.
History
San Pedro y San Pablo College was the second college founded by Jesuits in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Jesuit missionaries were sent to the new colony in the 16th century for Jesuit Reductions version of Indian Reductions, and to found new missions and schools. The missionary group that founded the college was led by Father Pedro Sanchez. and the official founding occurred in 1574 with the name of Colegio Máximo de San Pedro y San Pablo (Great College of Saints Peter and Paul). It was called "Máximo" because it was built to oversee the training of priests in Mexico City, Tepotzotlan, Puebla, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Guatemala and Mérida.
Construction of the facility began in 1576, funded by Don Alonso de Villaseca and others. The college's church, on the corner of El Carmen and San Ildefonso, was built by Jesuit architect Diego Lopez de Arbaizo between 1576 and 1603. The church annex was completed in 1603 by Diego Lopez de Albaize, and the rest of the college complex was finished in 1645.
The purpose of the college was to provide university-level education to young Criollo men, at least partially descended from white European colonial settlers. It was divided into the Lesser Schools, which taught humanities and Greek/Latin grammar, and the Superior Schools, which focused on theology, the arts and philosophy. The institution educated young men for both religious and secular vocations. It reached its peak during the first half of the 18th century when it had about 800 students enrolled; two of its more notable alumni are Francisco Javier Alegre and Francisco Javier Clavijero,
After the expulsion of the Jesuits from colonial Mexico in 1767, the college closed. The school building was given to civil authorities, who first used it as a barracks and later to house the Nacional Monte de Piedad "credit union" charity foundation. The church was transferred to Augustinians, who removed most of the church's decoration. The altarpieces, paintings, and other decorative objects were redistributed to other churches, especially to the Metropolitan Tabernacle of the Mexico City Cathedral, where many of these pieces still remain. During this time, the complex began to seriously deteriorate.
19th century
When the Jesuits received permission to return to colonial Mexico, fifty years later in 1816, they found the complex nearly in ruins. They worked to rebuild both the church and the school, with much of the physical reconstruction done by Cristóbal Rodríguez. However, San Pedro y San Pablo College never returned to its function, mostly due to the concurrent Mexican War of Independence against Spain. Shortly after Mexican independence was first declared in 1821, several important events occurred in the church building. In 1823, after proclaiming the independence of Mexico, Agustín de Iturbide held meetings here which led to the promulgation of the "Reglamento Provisional del Imperio" (Provisional Regulations of the Empire). In the following year, the initial sessions of the Constituent Congress were held here, which wrote the first Federal Constitution of Mexico in 1824. After Iturbide's short reign as emperor, Guadalupe Victoria was sworn in as the first president of Mexico here.
The church reopened for worship from 1832 to 1850, but then closed to become the library of San Gregorio College. During this time, the Virgin of Loreto image of Mexico City was here from 1832 to 1850 when it was thought that the Nuestra Señora de Loreto Church it belonged to might collapse. Later, the space had quite a number of uses such as a dance hall, an army depot and barracks, a correctional school called Mamelucos, a mental hospital, and a storage facility for Customs.
20th century
From 1921 to 1927, the building was remodeled by José Vasconcelos and inaugurated as a "Hall of Discussion" with an office dedicated to a campaign against illiteracy. Vasconcelos had the church building redecorated, adding a number of important early modern mural works by artists such as Xavier Guerrero and Roberto Montenegro.