Museo Universitario "Casa de los Muñecos", Puebla

The Museo Universitario “Casa de los Muñecos” occupies an 18th-century Baroque residence associated with Agustín de Ovando. Its name comes from the 16 tile figures on the façade: semi-nude men and women shown in animated poses. Tradition links them to a dispute over the owner’s ambitious third level, while art historians also connect their gestures, animals, snakes, pitchers, and musical elements with classical imagery, especially the Labours of Hercules.

The façade combines brick, grey stone, iron balconies, ceramic tiles, and raised ornament typical of Puebla’s colonial architecture. The “muñecos,” with their unusual bodies, props, and movements, suggest links to classical mythology, Asian design influence, and local tile craftsmanship, turning the exterior into a layered visual story.

Today, the house belongs to the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and functions as a university museum, with exhibition rooms, an auditorium, workshops, and three patios. Its varied collection includes colonial art, sculpture, scientific instruments, natural-history pieces, reduced heads, a historic mummy, mammoth remains, and works associated with Salvador Dalí. Before its restoration as a museum, the building also housed commercial and entertainment spaces, including a cinema.