Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones

This museum documents every single invasion Mexico has experienced since it’s inception, including at least one by drunken yachtsmen in a Chris Craft. The museum is located where the first battle for Mexico City was fought during the Mexican-American war. The floors of the building have been seriously contorted by uneven linkage over the years, such that walking down some of the halls is like being drunk.

This former convent (for men, not nuns) focuses on the Mexican-American and Mexico-French wars of the 1840’s and 1860’s, respectively.
They refer to these conflicts as the American intervention in Mexico and the French Intervention in Mexico, hence the name of the museum.

You enter into the gardens, some species of plants being original to the convent. From there, you go inside to buy your entrance ticket (70 pesos, students and seniors free.) It is a large space, laid out pretty well, with a large map as well as old flags and uniforms and weapons. There are several paintings and a replica of the structure and grounds.

We were a group of Americans studying Spanish, so we took a tour and only touched on the Mexican-American war section in an hour and a half; we did not have time to even walk through the French war section. If the subject matter is interesting to you, then you should visit this museum.

The museum is located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Coyoacan, about 2 Km (20 min. by foot) from the Plaza Hidalgo. In the pre-Hispanic period, this area was a small island, which was called Teopanzolco, at the juncture of Lake Texcoco and Lake Xochimilco. In the 17th century, the Spanish built the monastery of Churubusco over a ceremonial site dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli. The concept of "interventions" is used as the "act through which a State attempts to deny or hurt the national sovereignty of another independent State. There’s an incredible collection of pieces related to the 1810 independence from Spain, the 1829 Spanish intervention, the 1838 French intervention, the 1846 American intervetion, the 1862 French intervention, and the 1914 American intervention. So it’s amazing there’s still a sovereign and independent Mexico. But there’s also a great display about the 1910 Mexican Revolution, as well as pieces of religious art from the New Spain. The monastery’s church still retains its original function.

Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones (The National Museum of Interventions) is a unique, historical museum in Coyoacan, south of Mexico City. It was originally a convent where Mexican soldiers together with a battalion of Irish soldiers, known as the St. Patrick’s Battalion made their last stand against American forces in August 1847. The battle is considered the bloodiest battle of the Mexican-American War. As the museum’s name implies, the exhibits found here represent a historical account of the invasion of Mexico by foreign armies--most notably, the United States and France. There are numerous photographs, paintings, military artifacts, etc throughout the museum which consists of several adjoining rooms. An interesting item is a replica of a large plaque that honors the memory of the soldiers of the St. Patrick’s Battalion. Even more impressive, are the actual cannons in front of the museum that were used by the Irish Battalion to defend the convent.

An entire section is dedicated to General Pershing’s expedition in 1916 into Mexico to capture the infamous Pancho Villa. There is an interesting collection of photographs of black American soldiers who were captured by Pancho Villa’s men. Overall, the museum is a must-see for anyone seeking to learn more about Mexico’s history, from a Mexican perceptive.

Went with teenagers not planning initially to go, and we found this to be an historical landmark with long history, since this place is from the 1800’s. The museum first opened in 1981 and you will find here lots of documents, pictures, and stuff related to many interventions in Mexico, 1829 Spanish Intervention, 1838 French intervention, 1846 American Intervention, and elements from Mexico’s Independence and Revolution. This is really close to Coyoacan downtown and Frida Kahlo museum, worth visiting.

We had a free morning at the end of a business trip. Best thing for us is the Museum opened its doors at 9am. I asked my business associate to look for something to do, so he searched war museums since he is a retired Sargeant Major. Did I luck out. The Museum is in a 17th century former Franciscan friary called San Diego de Churubusco, the site of a battle in the Mexican American War of the late 1840’s. I would recommend this to Mexicans and foreigners. It goes through ongoing Spanish intervention after the 1810 War of Independence, followed by the aforementioned War, and then the French intervention, the intervention of foreign investors during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, and last the American invasion of Veracruz in1914. They have also preserved some of the Colonial era art. We both thoroughly enjoyed our couple of hours there. Very well done.

This is not something you would find in any other place... only Mexicans would bother to put together a collection of objects that would tell about the different nations that have conquered (or not) their beautiful land... from the Spanish to the Americans, including the French and some more I may forget, all the invasions that have taken place in the last five centuries have been accounted for here. The site is an old Convent where the Mexican Army tried to resist the American invasion in the mid 1900s, and the gardens are sometimes overlooked but they deserve some time to relax your mind after taking in so much information. There are guided tours which add interesting explanations to the visit.