Colegio de San Ignacio de Loyola Vizcaínas

[1] The school has maintained most of its mission and organization and is the only continuously operating colonial era institution in Mexico.

[2] It still benefits those in need with scholarships and it is still governed by a "patronato," who is the successor of a line that extends back to the original founders.

[1][6] Two of the main costs of maintaining the school are scholarships and the need to preserve the 18th century Baroque structure.

For example, three Christ figures were recently sent from the school to the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía to be restored by students there.

Some of the famous people who have married here include Lucero and Manuel Mijares, Ninfal Salina, the daughter of Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the daughter of Carlos Slim and Bernardo Sepúlveda Amor, María Inés Guerra and Gustavo Guzmán Favela.

[1][3] In January 2009, it was rented for a benefit concert given by musicians Elton John and James Blunt, as part of a Latin American tour.

[2][6] Along the east, west and south sides, the ground level was a series of compartments which opened to the street but not to the interior.

First they provided rental income to the school and they also offered a barrier on this level between the busy streets and the girls and women inside.

The damage done to the building over time as best be seen in the waves that now form in the stone beams on Aldaco street, along with the graffiti on the tezontle covered walls.

One of the side portals has the old coat of arms of Mexico and an image of the first New World saint, Rose of Lima.

The main portal was a slightly later addition when architect Lorenzo Rodriguez was hired in 1771 to create it and some other modifications.

[6] The other two niches of the main portal contain images of San Luis Gonzaga and Estanislao de Koski.

These statues were done by someone named Don Ignacio with Pedro Alyala and José de Olivera charged with painting them.

This chapel is in the elaborate Churrigueresque style with inverted truncated pyramid columns with five gilded altarpieces and a choir area which has one of the few surviving 18th century organs in the country.

[7] One of the best sculptures at the school was the image of the "Virgen del Coro" Virgin of the Choir, both for its quality and its ornamentation with jewels.

After chastising the children, the men decided that the girls themselves were not at fault but rather society for the failure to provide an education.

This brotherhood was called Nuestra Señora de Aránzazu and was formed by Basques belonging to the Bascongada Royal Society and most came from clerical, merchant and noble backgrounds,[2] who came from the Spanish provinces of Vizcaya, Álava, Guipúzcoa and Navarre.

[7] In 1732, the Brotherhood of Nuestra Señora de Aránzazu decided to found a school to protect and educate orphan girls and widows.

[2] The current name of Las Vizcainas College comes from the fact that it was designed to provide shelter for poor widows and girls, preferably of Basque origin or at least Spanish.

[5] While students were considered to be secular, their education nonetheless was based on Catholic principles including moral and religious instruction.

The Reform Laws changed the school's name to the Colegio de la Paz Vizcaínas.

[2] With the Reform Laws, the school stopped offering Mass in its chapel which lay semi abandoned for some time.