Casa Popenoe

Casa Popenoe was built as a residence in 1632 in Antigua Guatemala by Luis de las Infantas Mendoza, judge of the royal court. Over a period of around 300 years it had eight owners until, in 1929, it was acquired by Wilson and Dorothy Popenoe. Destroyed almost in its entirety, the house was occupied by the Popenoe family, who began an unprecedented restoration project; since when it began to be called Casa Popenoe.

In their hands, it became a living example of culture as an expression of civilization. In 2007, the Popenoe family donated the house to UFM. The house has a special collection which is made up of more than 2,300 volumes of books and magazines on different subjects, notably: botany, agriculture, horticulture, flora and history of Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala. It also comprises of furniture, paintings, sculptures, silverware, ceramics, and other items of historical value. The house’s beautiful gardens are home to sixty-one species of plants.

Through Casa Popenoe, UFM has had the opportunity to reevaluate the Spanish-Guatemalan period from the 16th to the early 19th centuries (erroneously known as the colonial period), but also the recovery of Antigua Guatemala itself.