Palacio de Lecumberri

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 popular culture as The Black Palace of Lecumberri, it served as a penitentiary from 1900 to 1976. It was inaugurated by President Porfirio Díaz. The inspiration and design of the Palacio is by Miguel S. Macedo, who was later on imprisoned there for several months during the turmoil brought about by the Mexican Revolution. The design is said to have been based on that of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon. Construction began in 1888. Among the famous people who were imprisoned there were David Alfaro Siqueiros, Juan Gabriel, Heberto Castillo, Trotsky's murderer Ramón Mercader, Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández and José Revueltas.

During La decena trágica in 1913, President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez were murdered while en route to Lecumberri.

Throughout its 76-year use as a prison, only two people 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 17, 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 turned over to the National Archive in 1980. The National Archive is one of the oldest historical archives in the Americas.