Hospital de San Pedro ("St Peter's Hospital")
The majesty of one of the most important hospitals in the Americas will be revealed before your eyes.
4 Norte and 2 Oriente

Founded between 1540 and 1545, this hospital became the most important in the city, so important that the Hospital de San Juan de Dios was moved here from its original site, now the home of the Museo Amparo. Enlarged and remodeled by bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, this hospital met the needs of the era: a central garden, wards built on a cross floor plan in whose center is an altar for celebrating mass, a chapel for holding wakes and spaces designed to provide services for the sick staying there.

During the 18th century, this hospital treated the victims of several epidemics, so that many of the city's dead had to be buried under the main courtyard and the floor of the chapel. It was even necessary to build a mass grave in the neighborhood of Xanenetla to deposit the bodies from the hospital when room for them ran out in the courtyards.

In the 19th century, with the anti-clerical Reform Laws, the hospital was renamed the "General State Hospital". In 1917, it moved location due to changes in hospital requirements, and so the building was abandoned, used to keep horses and streetcars and was at one point on the verge of being dynamited so that its stone could be used for the foundations of new homes. So it was that in the 1940s a new use was eventually found for the site: "Puebla City Sports Palace", henceforth commonly known as "St Peter's Sportsground". Everything from wrestling and boxing matches to end-of-semester parties for the city's schools were held here. In 1978 the building was restored and renovated to be used as various government offices.

In 1999, after extensive remodeling and restoration work, it opened its doors as a museum, hosting a variety of great temporary exhibitions.

Don't miss the murals in the stairwell, discovered in 1996 during the restoration! And enjoy one of the most beautiful and discreetly charming courtyards in Puebla!