JAC
Built by Jesuit initiative, this 250 year old colonial house, home of Lorenzo Mendoza Buroz (businessman, philanthropist and Governor of Caracas for a short time in 1861) since 1893, is the result of a complex process of revitalization and restoration of two houses –acquired in 1893 and 1903– that were joined into one house with inner courtyards and gardens and that, over time, was the home of the Mendoza Martinez, Mendoza Fleury and Mendoza Quintero families. Currently a museum and library, it is organized around a first body with ten rooms and an inner courtyard, with large arcades and a central fountain, reminiscent of Andalusian houses. The back courtyard has a well kept garden with two ancient royal palms. The gardens were planted according to the tradition of the times to harmonize with the rest. The halls exhibit archaeological remains found during the restoration that, together with an old well, possibly used as a cistern or dungeon, are part of the place’s memory. The house, which was the seat of the Caracas Veteran’s Battalion (1771-1777), Royal Mint (1810-1818) and of the prestigious schools El Salvador del Mundo (1849-1859) and Santa María (1859), reopened its doors in 2001 as a place for the study and dissemination of Venezuelan history.
DF-34