In front of you gleams a façade entirely clad in blue and white Talavera tiles from Puebla. This is the House of Tiles, a palace of colonial origin that belonged to the Counts of the Valle de Orizaba, and behind its ceramics lies one of the most retold legends of the Centre.

1A spendthrift son

According to tradition, a young man of the family was squandering his fortune on parties and carousing, and his father scolded him: "Son, at this rate you'll never get far, nor build a house of tiles." The saying was real: covering a façade in tiles was a sign of great wealth. Stung, the young man supposedly mended his ways and, to prove he had changed, had the whole house tiled. The chronicler Luis González Obregón popularised the story in the early 20th century.

The documented version is less romantic: in 1737 Countess Graciana Suárez de Peredo commissioned the cladding of the façade with tiles from Puebla.

2A murder on the stairs

The house also holds a real and bloody episode. In 1828, during the days of the Acordada riot, the former count Andrés Diego Suárez de Peredo was murdered on the courtyard staircase. His killer, Manuel Palacios, was executed by garrotte.

Since 1919 the house has been home to a Sanborns, and on its staircase José Clemente Orozco painted the mural "Omniscience" in 1925.

Before that, from 1881, it had housed the elegant Jockey Club, a meeting place for high society in the age of Porfirio Díaz.

3What to look for

  • The tiles, blue and white, with geometric and plant motifs.
  • The iron balconies and the stone mouldings framing the ceramics.
  • The side façade, also tiled: walk round to see the scale of the commission.
Inner courtyard of the House of Tiles, now a Sanborns restaurant
The counts' old courtyard, roofed over and used as a dining room since 1919.

Documented

The façade was clad in Puebla tiles in 1737 on the orders of Countess Graciana Suárez de Peredo; the former count Andrés Diego Suárez de Peredo was murdered in the house in 1828.

Oral tradition

The story of the spendthrift son who tiled the house to prove his father wrong is a legend recorded by chroniclers, with no documentary support.

Sources and credits

Luis González Obregón, "Las calles de México" (1922); Autoridad del Centro Histórico, entry on the Casa de los Azulejos; Manuel Romero de Terreros, "La Casa de los Azulejos" (1918).

Photos:

  • Corner of the House of Tiles, its façade covered in blue and white tiles: Stefano Vigorelli, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Inner courtyard of the House of Tiles, now a Sanborns restaurant: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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