State Government Palace
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The construction began in 1665 when Bernarda Salado, the original owner of the land, made an exchange with the parish priest Pedro Rincón de Ortega, who intended to build a house for the heirs of the estate. The construction work was completed in the 18th century by José Rincón Gallardo, the parish priest's great-nephew, who was the first person to own the mansion, which belonged to the Rincón Gallardo family until the third half of the 19th century, when José María Rincón Gallardo sold the property to a niece and then it passed into the hands of Pedro Oviedo.
The building served as the headquarters of the Mesón de la Unión in 1842 until thirteen years later, when the Oviedo heirs sold the building to the Aguascalientes City Council, who in turn sold it to the State Government in 1856. The building has undergone a series of changes over time and according to the needs of the rulers in turn. Jesús María Chávez (governor from 1944 to 1950) began an expansion of the building that was later continued by Luis Ortega Douglas (governor from 1956 to 1962). The arrangements were completed during the governorship of Enrique Olivares Santana (governor from 1962 to 1968).
Murals by Oswaldo Barra Cunningham
During the renovations of the Government Palace in the 1960s, under the administration of the then governor of the State of Aguascalientes, engineer Luis Ortega Douglas, not only was the architectural remodeling of the old building commissioned, but the Chilean muralist Oswaldo Barra Cunningham was also commissioned to create frescoes that would provide the building with an artistic and cultural appeal, in addition to clearly narrating the historical trajectory of the entity.
There are five frescoes that make up the set, all made by the Chilean artist over a period of thirty years:
1. Aguascalientes in history (1961)
2. The San Marcos fair (1962)
3. Interpretation of the colors of the flag (1989)
4. The Aguascalientes Convention (1991)
5. The Battle of the Gran Nopalera (1991)
