José de la Borda

[1][2] He is best remembered today through several architectural works that he sponsored, the most monumental being the Santa Prisca Church in Taxco.

Borda was the second son of Pierre Laborde, an officer in the army of Louis XIV of France and Spaniard Magdalena Sanchez.

Jean Joseph (de) Laborde, a French financer born in Jaca in 1724, confirmed José's French-Spanish nationality.

Eight years later, he wrote for José to join him to work with him at the La Lajuela mine he founded in Tehuilotepec, near Taxco.

[5] After working with his brother for a number of years, José set off to find new mineral strikes, arriving to Tlalpujahua in 1734.

[2] Borda mortgaged the last major possession he owned in Taxco, the richly ornate Santa Prisca Church, in order to finance an expedition to Zacatecas.

Once there, he initially worked in a mine called “La Quebradilla” but it did not produce as much as hoped and payments were coming due on the mortgage.

He wanted to return to Taxco, but his son Manuel convinced him to retire to the family house in Cuernavaca, where he thought the climate would be better.

[3] The church is named after Saint Prisca, a female Roman aristocrat who defied Claudius II by repudiating Apollo in favor of Christ.

[4] Later, Borda's son, Manuel, transformed the grounds of the house into gardens filled with flowers and fruit trees to satisfy his passion for botany.

It hosted major political soirees in the 19th and 20th centuries such as those sponsored by Porfirio Díaz and Emiliano Zapata.

Originally the building encompassed an entire city block and was supposed to rival the palaces of Hernán Cortés and his descendants.

The building has two ironwork balconies on the two upper floors that went around the entire structure, allowing Borda to walk around the block without ever leaving his house.