Calle de Don Juan Manuel

You're on Calle República de Uruguay, which for centuries was called Calle de Don Juan Manuel. The name recalled a real resident, Juan Manuel de Solórzano, and the darkest legend of the colonial city, which tradition places in a mansion on this stretch, around number 90.

1"Lucky you, to know the hour of your death"

The legend says that Don Juan Manuel, rich and jealous, suspected his wife of being unfaithful. In despair he summoned the devil, who told him to go out to his door at eleven at night and kill the first man who passed. He obeyed: wrapped in his cloak, he asked the first passer-by for the time and, when the man answered "eleven", stabbed him, saying: "Lucky you, to know the hour of your death." The killings went on night after night, until one morning the dead man turned out to be his own nephew. Overcome with remorse, he confessed, and a friar ordered him, as penance, to pray for three nights at the foot of the gallows. At dawn after the third night he was found hanging from them: in the best-known versions, by the hand of angels.

2The real man

Juan Manuel de Solórzano did exist. He arrived in New Spain around 1623 and was a trusted man of the viceroy, the Marquis of Cadereyta, which set him against the judges of the Audiencia, who kept him in prison. According to papers collected in the 19th century by the Count de la Cortina, in 1641 he was found hanged in the main square.

Behind the divine punishment, many historians see a political settling of scores.

3What to look for

• The corner plaque with the street's old name.
• The mansion at number 90, which tradition links to the story; the present building is later.
• The wooden doorways and barred windows along the street.