Museo Textil de Oaxaca.

Like many museums in the historic center of Oaxaca City, the Museo Textil de Oaxaca is housed in an 18th-century mansion. The property was once part of the orchard of the former Convent of Santo Domingo Soriano—the second Dominican foundation in the Americas, established in 1529 and later dedicated to Saint Paul—where Indigenous residents of the city received sermons in Náhuatl, Zapotec, and Mixtec. (MTO.org, 2025)

In the early 17th century, the convent suffered severe damage due to a series of earthquakes. As a result, the Dominicans, under the initiative of Fray Francisco de Burgoa—Oaxaca’s foremost chronicler and historian of the viceregal period—were forced to rent and eventually sell portions of their land to finance reconstruction. The first owner of the subdivision where the museum now stands was Don Miguel de Bustamante, who built a modest one-story adobe house.

Between 1764 and 1771, the property was purchased by Spanish merchant and landowner Ángel de Antelo y Bermúdez, who made his fortune exporting cochineal—the quintessential Oaxacan textile dye. Don Ángel demolished the adobe house and built a typical two-story Oaxacan Baroque mansion, with a green cantera stone façade and a beautifully carved wooden door. The building was known throughout the 18th and 19th centuries as the Casa Antelo.

By the mid-19th century, the building belonged to the Hospital de Belén, a charitable institution run by the Bethlemite brothers. In 1862, during the liberal and anticlerical era, the adjacent house to the east was demolished to create Benito Juárez Street (now Fiallo), though the Antelo residence remained intact until 2002, when the real estate company that had acquired the property ordered the destruction of its interior.

In 2007, the property was restored to house the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, created as a meeting point for people, traditions, design, and contemporary art. Its mission is to offer a broad perspective on the designs, techniques, and creative processes behind textile production in Oaxaca, Mexico, and around the world—through ongoing exchanges of specialized knowledge via conferences, workshops, and exhibitions.

Today, the Museo Textil de Oaxaca is open every day of the week, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and admission is completely free for all visitors.