Palace of Cortés

Morelos · Mexico · Palace

Hidden in the palace walls for four centuries: a bewitched doll with a pin driven through its head.

In the 1520s, Hernán Cortés raised his palace in Cuernavaca on top of a conquered Aztec platform, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings on the continent. During works in the 1970s, archaeologists found a wooden doll with a pin driven through its head, a lock of human hair beside it — witchcraft some attribute to Cortés's own wife, Juana de Zúñiga. Beneath the palace, a serpent woman is said to guard a hidden Aztec treasure, and the legends speak of a secret escape tunnel to the old temple. The palace is a museum today, but its darker stories live on in the halls.

FAQ

Where is Palace of Cortés located?

Palace of Cortés is in Morelos, Mexico.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Cocatta andatta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons