The late politician and entrepreneur Mauricio Fernández Garza was a multi-faceted man. Best known to locals as a former mayor of the wealthy suburb of San Pedro Garza García in the metro area of Monterrey, Mexico, he was also a devoted art collector with a passion for nature, art, history, and design. Over the course of his life, he collected a myriad of alluring objects, forming one of the most charming and interesting assortments out there. Now, this once-private collection is being shared with the public in a bespoke museum named La Milarca.
Found inside the Rufino Tamayo park, the museum is housed in a replica of Fernández Garza’s house. The building is a work of art in itself, with decorative elements embedded around the rooms, making them alone worth the visit. The highlights include four reclaimed Renaissance ceilings dating from the 14th to the 16th centuries, three Mexican colonial-era porticos, ornate wood floors, and the seven Gothic masonry arches found throughout the property.
The collection is divided across four main galleries housing approximately 3,500 works. These range from minerals, sculptures, crafts, antiques, books, and maps. Together, they evoke the cabinets of curiosities of yesteryear, an ancient style of collecting where the collector’s acquired knowledge and unique eye for artifacts and the stories behind them shaped the overall collection.
One of the most captivating parts of the collections is the fossils. Born and raised in an area packed with dinosaur remains, Fernández García developed an interest in paleontology from a young age. That’s why the collection features a fossil he discovered in the Vallecillo, Nuevo León area. The specimen turned out to be a one-of-a-kind plesiosaur, which now bears a scientific name that honors the collector: Mauriciosaurus fernandezsi. In addition to this, the museum features over 50 fossils.
The museum also houses what is regarded as one of the most important collections of copper coins on the continent, ranging from colonial times to the present. In doing so, it retells the history of the region and the world from a different yet practical approach. In turn, La Milarca also preserves the local cultural imaginary through its 500-piece folk art collection. Among these are the artifacts that make up the Mexico 86 collection, a selection of crafts commissioned by media mogul Emilio Azcárraga Milmo to spotlight Mexican craftsmanship during the 1986 World Cup.
All in all, the museum feels like a love letter to the human mind, from the objects it can conjure into the world, to the wonder it can feel at the sight of beauty and creativity. To plan your visit, take a look at La Milarca’s website.
La Milarca is a museum in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico, that boasts a unique collection of 3,500 objects, ranging from folk art to dinosaur fossils.
