This building’s construction began in 1870 at the request of Zacatecas’s second bishop, José María del Refugio Guerra y Alba, with the purpose of housing the Tridentine Conciliar Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. The architect Sixto Espinoza designed the layout.

The seminary operated until 1924. On June 14 of that year, it was occupied and looted by Villista troops and repurposed as a military barracks and tenement housing.

In 1964, the building was rehabilitated and used as a prison until 1995. That year, the prison was moved to the new Cieneguillas correctional facility, and in 1997, the building was restored and adapted to host the Manuel Felguérez Abstract Art Museum.