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Manuel inherited the garden from his father Jose de la Borda. In the beginning he thougth of it as a rest house for his father, but when Jose de la Borda died, on May 30th, 1778, he transformed the place into a botanical garden, which at that time already contained hundreds of differents fruit trees and ornamental plants.
The Jardin Borda as known today including the internal lake was finished in 1783. In 1784 the adjoining Church of Guadalupe was built.
Besides its gardens, the placebecame famous because of the books and articles written by visitors who stayed there.
The residence never lost its appeal and, in 1865, after taking a trip to Yucatan, The emperors Maximiliano and Carlota Amalia chose this place as their summer residence. As a couple stayed there, the garden regained its status of simple elegance; it stopped being a hotel and become a royal palace. The Emperors, surrounded bye their court, offered spectacular gatherings in the gardens and excellent concerts by the lake.
Among the Jadin Borda´s importan visitors were Francisco I Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, Francisco Leyva, Porfirio Diaz and Diego Rivera.
Nowadays, the Jardin Borda belongs to the instituto de Cultura de Morelos, which organizes cultural activities such as painting, sculpture, plastic arts and photography exhibits as well as dance, theater and drama performances and a great variety of concerts.
In 1991, the section known as Seccion Juarez was remodeled recreating the old building environment. This section has a museum whichs exhibits furniture and clothing from the 18th century, as well as copies of documents from the Empires. This museum occupies 7 out the13 rooms available, the others 6 are being used for temporary exhibits.
