The "Inn of the condemned" is based on a real place, but...

What do Arturo “El Negro” Durazo Moreno and the famous hotel “Posada del Sol” have to do with the novel "Inn of the condemned"?

The Inn of the condemned is a horror and suspense novel by José Neptuno Martínez. It takes some actual events, and places as part of the plot adapted to serve the story better. It can be said that they were scenes of something entirely fictitious.

As part of one of the central axes that give rise to the story, reference is made to the infamous Arturo “El Negro” Durazo, the top chief of the General Directorate of Police and Traffic of the then Federal District, today Mexico City, during the period from 1976 to 1982. A character who did exist and about whom much has been written, but who is best remembered for his acts of corruption and despotism that reached surreal levels. Among them was the construction of the luxurious mansion known as the Parthenon, located on the beaches of Zihuatanejo in the State of Guerrero in Mexico. He was a close friend of the former president of Mexico, José López Portillo. In one of the excesses that used to characterize him, he appointed Durazo as Division General, ignoring all the formalities and requirements of the Mexican army—among them and, most importantly, having a military career.

Some of the brief anecdotes talked about Durazo within the novel by one of the characters are also, in part, accurate. They are taken from testimonies of people who worked under his command and published in newspaper articles, books, and even movies. But we insist that, for the novel, they were modified and adapted for the development of the plot.

We could talk a lot about Arturo “El Negro” Durazo. However, this article intends to refer to another of the novel's main characters. The “Posada del Sol” hotel is where a large part of the “Inn of the condemned” takes place. La Posada del Sol is an old hotel that, like its owner, fell into disgrace. The construction of it was always surrounded by mystery, and the stories told about it are full of esotericism, witchcraft, and other things.

La Posada del Sol is located in the Doctores neighborhood, on Avenida Niños Héroes, number 139 in Mexico City. Currently, the hotel is in a state of abandonment, its doors are closed to the general public, and little or no maintenance is given to it. For some time, there was talk that the government of Mexico City intended to rehabilitate it to use it as a University. But there was also talk of its possible demolition, which would be a real tragedy since it is a place of invaluable architectural wealth.

But what makes La Posada del Sol hotel so unique? We will mention some of its backgrounds. There is copious information on the Internet and YouTube; if you want to know more about this enigmatic hotel, we can tell you that it is worth knowing since it should be considered an artistic jewel and even a national monument.

The Posada del Sol was built in the early 1940s to turn it into the most important and imposing hotel in Mexico City and a cultural center to attract all kinds of artists and intellectuals. First-world-class events would take place there. Presidents, prime ministers, queens, kings, princes, and all sorts of dignitaries and rulers would be hosted at the Posada del Sol; hence its name, because its doors would receive people with a brightness comparable to that of the solar star. This extravagant and ambitious architectural work fused all styles, from the baroque, classic, and avant-garde, to forms without apparent meaning. It opened its doors in 1945 and was only in operation for eight months. The reasons for its closure, as narrated in multiple sources, were contradictory and fanciful most of the time.

For many, the hotel is a strange, capricious, enigmatic, incomprehensible construction. It had five hundred rooms scattered among several buildings. Murals that narrate various vital events in the history of Mexico, monoliths, quarry arches decorated with Talavera, anthropomorphic sculptures, and to a certain extent, sinister patios, gardens, a theater, auditorium, and even a chapel can be found in the place. Some of the stone or quarry figures that stand out the most on the site are those of Saint Francis of Assisi and the Gubbio wolf. According to legend, in ancient times, the ferocious animal had the city of Gubbio, in Italy, plunged into terror as it devoured animals and people. No one, it seemed, could stop him until, moved by his enormous compassion for the city's inhabitants, Saint Francis decided to intervene, risking his own life to appease the dangerous beast, who, with the sign of the cross, would have managed to tame the wolf. Since then, the animal never attacked the city again.

The creator and apparently owner of the hotel, the architect Fernando Saldaña Galván, was a character wrapped in a halo of mystery because, according to what is narrated, he had fallen into disgrace as a result of the terrible debts that came upon him due to the high cost of the project. Others spoke of conspiracies, revenge, and legal problems due to diverting public funds for the hotel project, rivalries between political groups, and even Masonic intrigues. Of the few details publicly known about his life, it is known with certainty that in addition to having been a wealthy man, he ventured into politics and at one time was regent of Mexico City, hence the accusations of diversion of public funds.

Some stories say that the architect decided to end his life inside the hotel, hanging from a post that held a bell. He couldn't stand the pressures upon him as his magnum opus turned against him like a rabid animal. There was talk of dark interests behind his failure and that he might even have been killed. Other stories affirmed that every day at a particular time —which coincides with when the architect hanged himself—a bell is heard ringing inside the hotel announcing the wandering routine of the ghost of Saldaña in the company of an entourage of suffering specters of their misfortunes. But just as contradictory as the hotel turns out to be, there was another opposite version of Saldaña's final destination that pointed instead to death due to old age, in retirement, wrapped in misery, and abandoned in his house. All the stories around the hotel are closer to the border of fantasy than reality.

In some internet pages, reference is made to the fact that when Negro Durazo was in charge of the General Directorate of Police and Traffic of the D.F., he would have used that place as a kind of clandestine operations center to carry all sorts of things. From using their spaces as warehouses for storing drugs and stolen merchandise to orgies and bacchanals. The Posada del Sol was perfect for this since it was owned by the city government and was abandoned. Some residents surrounding the sinister enclosure affirmed that they heard screams, moans, and lamentations at night. And some others said that these were the product of some satanic sects.

It is a reality that La posada de Sol hotel deserves to be rescued from its abandonment and rehabilitated as a cultural center to partially fulfill the wishes of its creator, the architect Fernando Saldaña Galván.

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