Palacio de Lecumberri

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The Palacio de Lecumberri is a large building, formerly a prison, in the northeast of Mexico City, Mexico which now houses the General National Archive (Archivo General de la Nación).

Known in Mexican popular culture as The Black Palace of Lecumberri, it served as a penitentiary from 1900 to 1976. It was inaugurated by President Porfirio Díaz. Construction began in 1888. Among the famous people who were imprisoned there were Pancho Villa, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Heberto Castillo, Trotsky's murderer Ramón Mercader, and José Revueltas.

During La decena tragica, Mexican President Francisco I. Madero, as well as his Vice President José María Pino Suárez, were murdered while en route to Lecumberri in 1913.

Throughout its 76-year use as a prison, only two people ever escaped alive. The first, Pancho Villa, was a general of the Mexican Revolution. The second was Dwight Worker, an American convicted of smuggling cocaine. With the aid of his then-wife, Worker escaped on December 17th, 1975 disguised as a woman. They later authored a book about their experiences entitled Escape (ISBN 0-913374-76-8).

The building was decommissioned as a prison in 1976, and later turned over to the National Archive in 1980. The national archive is one of the oldest historical archives in the Americas.