Pancho Villa House

Pancho Villa HouseThe Pancho Villa House, home to the Museum of the Revolution, in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Pancho Villa House, mansion of 50 rooms in Chihuahua, Mexico, where revolutionary leader Pancho Villa lived with his wife María Luz Corral de Villa in the early 20th century. At that time it was known as the Quinta Luz, and it opened as the Museum of the Revolution in 1982.

The house was built on the outskirts of Chihuahua in the first decade of the 20th century, about the time that Villa turned from bandit to revolutionary. When Villa became governor of Chihuahua state in December 1913, he also began enlarging his house into the Quinta Luz, named for his wife. His guerrilla activities kept him from spending much time there, however. His wife continued to reside in the house, even after his assassination in 1923, and upon her death in 1981, the house was bequeathed to the city with the stipulation that it be used for a museum dedicated to Pancho Villa.

Villa’s house remains much as it was. The exhibits in the Museum of the Revolution include the original furnishings, weaponry and banners of the Mexican Revolution, Villa’s personal collection of arms and his saddles, and many historical photographs. Perhaps the most impressive artifact is the bullet-riddled vehicle in which Villa died.

Tamsin Pickeral