The Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres (Rotunda of Illustrious Men) is a circular monument made of quarried stone, built to honor the memory of distinguished people from Jalisco. It was built in 1952, and it contains seventeen columns which mark off a circular space, containing ninety-eight urns with the remains of the figures honored here. Across the street is the municipal palace, which was constructed in 1952. It has four façades of quarried stone, and it mostly of Neoclassical design with elements such as courtyards, entrances and columns that imitate the older structures of the city. The Palace of the State Government is in Churrigueresque and Neoclassical styles, and was begun in the 17th century and finished in 1774. The interior was completely remodeled after an explosion here in 1859. This building contains a number of murals done by José Clemente Orozco, a native of Jalisco, and includes "Lucha Social," "Circo Político" and "Las Fuerzas Ocultas." The last one depicts Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla with his arm raised above his head in anger against the government and the church.
The Plaza de la Liberación is on the east side of the Cathedral. It is nicknamed the Plaza de las Dos Copas, referring to the two fountains on the east and west sides. Facing this plaza is the Teatro Degollado (Degollado Theater). It was built in the mid nineteenth century in Neoclassical design. The main portal has a pediment with a scene in relief called "Apollo and the Muses" sculpted in marble by Benito Castañeda. Inside the vaulted ceiling contains a fresco which depicts a scene from the Divine Comedy painted by Jacobo Gálvez and Gerardo Suárez. Behind the theater is another plaza with a fountain called the Fuente de los Fundadores (Fountain of the Founders). The plaza is located in the exact spot where the city was founded and contains a sculpture depicting Cristobal de Oñate at the event (finsemana).
