The Salón Tenampa was founded by Juan Indalecio Hernández Ibarra, originally from Cocula, Jalisco, the birthplace of mariachi.

Hernández arrived in Mexico City from Jalisco in 1923 and started a cantina/store on Plaza Garibaldi, naming it El Tenampa.

The origin of this name is in dispute. Some say it was the brand name of a Cuban cigar that has since disappeared. Others say it is the name of a ranch in Veracruz and still others say it comes from an indigenous word “tenampal” meaning meeting place.

Hernández opened the establishment to give his fellow “Jalisquenses” a taste of home, with foods such as birria and pozole, as well as tequila and mariachi music.

Soon after opening his establishment, Hernández located a mariachi musician he knew in Cocula, Concho Andrade, and convinced him to play at El Tenampa. This began the long tradition of major mariachi bands playing here.

However, Andrade’s band did not play here long because of the ongoing Cristero War that was causing problems back in Cocula, causing most of the band to return to Jalisco to their families.

In 1927, Hernández hired Cirilo Marmolejo to play along with other mariachi groups.

While one group played inside the club, another would play for crowds outside in the Plaza. The popularity of mariachi music grew and other big names in the genre, such as José Reyes, would also come and play at El Tenampa.

Over the decades, the establishment hosted kings, princesses, presidents, and prime ministers, as well as innumerable politicians, artists, and intellectuals from Mexico and abroad.

Still located on the north side of Garibaldi Plaza, El Tenampa parties every night until 03:00 or 04:00 on weekends and holidays.

In 1910, Garibaldi Plaza had a garden in the middle of it. Later, the plaza was completely paved over with a kiosk placed in the center and an arcade placed near the front, by Eje Central.

On either side of the plaza were statues of great Charro singers. Along with the Salón Tenampa, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs have surrounded the Plaza.

Other popular nightspots have included the Guadalajara de Noche, the Nuevo México Típico, and the Tropicana. Places to eat include the San Camilito Gastronomic Market, which is filled with small stands serving Mexican food, many specializing in birria.

There is a pulquería here as well, called the Pulquería Hermosa Hortensia. While it is not a traditional pulquería, it is considered to be a safe place for tourists to try the native alcoholic drink of pulque.

Until 2009, this was the look the plaza had. The kiosk and arcade had witnessed thousands of declarations of love, where couples had mariachi bands serenade them. Others had come to celebrate special occasions, for nights out on the town, or to forget about a lost love.

Every year on 21 November, the Day of the Music is celebrated here.

By 2009, the Plaza and the neighborhoods of Guerrero and Tlatelolco surrounding it had been in decline for decades. Infrastructure had not been maintained or updated, but the most serious deterioration for the area has been in the way of security.

The area is well known for thieves, especially on the side streets, indigence, and public drunkenness.

This deterioration has caused many legitimate businesses to leave these neighborhoods and the number of tourists visiting the Plaza itself has greatly declined.

In spite of the area’s serious decline, Plaza Garibaldi remains one of the best-recognized places by foreign visitors in Mexico City.

In 2007, a plan to rescue and revitalize Plaza Garibaldi and the surrounding neighborhoods called the Programa Integral de Remodelación de la Plaza Garibaldi, was implemented. The plan is part of the ongoing effort to revitalize the historic downtown, and part of more ambitious plans to revitalize tourism in Zona Rosa and Xochimilco as well.

The goal of the Garibaldi project is to recuperate one of the most “emblematic” or “iconic” places and to restore it as one of the premier nightspots in Mexico City.

The first priority of the project has been to improve the security of the Plaza and the surrounding neighborhoods.

A “security zone” between La Lagunilla (just east of Plaza Garibaldi), extending west and south to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, has been created so that the area can be visited 24 hours a day.

This area is called the Bellas Artes-Garibaldi Tourism Corridor. Street lighting is being improved along with the rehabilitation of the gardens and sidewalks of the neighboring streets.

More police are being stationed here and two permanent police modules, one on Eje Central and the other in the center of Plaza Garibaldi itself, are planned.

Security cameras are being installed and traffic flow along Eje Central improved. To rid the area of indigents and drunks, social workers are being employed to lead people to shelters and/or to job training services as appropriate.

When necessary, judicial intervention will occur, according to the city. It is hoped that these combined efforts will move “anti-social” elements to other parts of the city, allowing businesses and private investment to return.

All property owners in the area are being required to invest, co-invest, sell their lands, or risk expropriation. The old kiosk and arcade have been leveled, as well as some of the older buildings on the east side of the plaza, to create more open space.

An agave garden is the center of the new Plaza Garibaldi. Benches, better walkways, lighting, and a tourism information booth are added.

Two showpieces of the project are the Museum of Tequila and Mezcal and a School of Mariachi dedicated to the formal training of mariachi musicians.

Located just behind the Agave Garden on the Plaza, the museum is a three-story building with clear glass walls, stone floors, and an area of 220 m2.

The architect of the project is Adriana Sepúlveda Vildósola, who is sponsored by the Autoridad de Espacio Público of Mexico City. Offices and other spaces occupy most of the ground floor.

The first floor is an open exhibition area and contains most of the museum’s exhibition space. The purpose of the museum is to show the drinks’ origins, production, and wide variety, and their place in the history of Mexico and Mexican cuisine.

The museum also contains a tasting room.

The project has a budget of 30 million pesos.

The top floor of the museum building is home to a bar with a small performing area, where seasoned solo mariachi singers perform well-known Mexican folk songs. The mostly Mexican audiences often sing along with the performers.

Although open to the public, it has a genial and inclusive atmosphere.

The School of Mariachi, like its predecessor, the School of Mexican Music, which was housed in an old silk factory nearby, trains mariachi musicians with an eye toward keeping the old traditional ways.

Many mariachi purists complain that the music has been over-adapted to modern tastes and that many “pirate musicians,” who do not devote themselves to the music full-time, are ruining one of Mexico’s treasured icons.

Many also worry that the music’s popularity in other places in the world, especially in the United States, is bringing unwanted changes to the genre. The School of Mariachi will get a new home in the new Plaza, and will also certify professional mariachi musicians from Mexico and around the world.

The School of Mariachi has a budget of 32.1 million pesos.

The statues of Mexican music greats such as Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Javier Solís, and others are being moved to Republica de Honduras Street. This street will be closed to vehicular traffic and be converted into the Paseo de los Idolos de la Música Mexicana (Boulevard of the Idols of Mexican Music).

The San Camilitio Gastronomic Market will remain, but it will be extensively rehabilitated at a cost of 4.5 million pesos. To further gastronomic development here, the city has proposed a Conservatory of Mexican Cuisine.

They are also working to get gourmet restaurants in other parts of the city to open here as well, promising to work to promote new restaurants that do open here.

A lienzo charro for charreada has also been planned for this section of the city, as it is tied to mariachi music.

Plaza Garibaldi is located in historic downtown Mexico City, on Eje Central (Lázaro Cárdenas) between street Calle República de Honduras and street Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Metro: Garibaldi-Langunilla

The delegation comprises its historic and cultural center. The city and borough are centered on the Zócalo or main square which contains the Aztec ruins of the Templo Mayor, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the National Palace of Mexico.

The borough covers 3,244 hectares or 32.44 km2, divided into 34 colonias, with, 1,500 buildings classified as national monuments and 2 archeological zones (Tlatelolco and Templo Mayor).

Because it is the oldest part of Mexico City, with buildings that are centuries old, deterioration is an ongoing concern.

Currently, at least 789 inhabited buildings in twelve colonies have been listed as in danger of condemnation, due to structural damage caused by sinking into muddy soil of the former lakebed.

These are mostly located in the historic center and the colonies immediately surrounding it. Some of these have been classified as having historic or artistic value by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes or Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

This has been a problem for the area for centuries and has involved famous structures such as the Metropolitan Cathedral, which had major foundation work done to stop the damage caused by uneven sinking.

Most of the 5 million who come into this borough each day are there to work, visit the area’s markets, shops, and cultural attractions, or are tourists. The borough is the most visited area of the city by tourists, who mostly come to see the historic center and Zona Rosa.

People from other parts of the city come to visit the museums and large public markets such as La Lagunilla, Mixcalco, Hidalgo, Medellín, and San Juan. The influx brings in 800,000 vehicles to circulate its streets each day, with traffic jams, especially in and near the historic center nearly a daily occurrence.

The early history of the delegation coincides with the history of Aztec Tenochtitlan and colonial Mexico City. Tenochtitlan was founded on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was divided into four capuillis or neighborhoods centering on the Templo Mayor. This temple’s ruins are located very close to the modern main square or Zocalo today.

When the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521, they destroyed most of the old Aztec public buildings but kept the basic layout of the city, which roughly extends over what is now known as the historic center or Colonia Centro.

The Cathedral was built over a portion of the sacred precinct (teocalli) of the destroyed Templo Mayor, the National Palace was built over Moctezuma’s New Palace, and the Zocalo was built over what was an open space near the sacred temple space.

Over the early colonial period, European-style construction would replace Aztec ones over the entire island city, with the most important public buildings concentrated on the blocks adjoining the Zocalo.

As the center of New Spain, the city held the greatest prestige, prompting those who had made their fortunes through conquest, mining, commerce, and other means to have homes in the city, as close to the Zocalo as possible. The city soon became filled with mansions, large churches and monasteries, and monumental public buildings which would eventually earn it the nickname “City of Palaces”.

At the beginning of the 19th century, this city remained mostly within what is now called the historic center although various drainage projects had been enlarging the island.

The city proper contained 397 streets and alleys, 12 bridges, 78 plazas, 14 parish churches, 41 monasteries, 10 colleges, 7 hospitals, a poorhouse, a cigar factory, 19 restaurants, 2 inns, 28 corrals for horses, and 2 official neighborhoods.

After Mexico gained its Independence, the city was designated as the capital of the new country in 1824. The city and a quantity of land surrounding it total of 11.5 sq km was designated as the “Federal District,” separate from the other states.

By the late, 19th century, the city began to break its traditional confines with the construction of new neighborhoods, called colonies, in the still-drying lakebed. This was especially true in the areas west of the historic area, with the creation of “modern” colonies for the wealthy along the Paseo de la Reforma, built earlier by Maximilian I.

These colonies include Colonia Juárez, Colonia Roma, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, and Colonia San Rafael. Colonias for poorer and working-class people were built mostly north and south of the city such as Colonia Morelos, and Colonia Doctores.

In 1928, President Álvaro Obregón divided the rapidly growing Federal District area into thirteen boroughs (delegaciones), with what was then the city proper designated as the Cuauhtémoc borough.

While the borough still remained the center of the city’s commerce, politics, academia, and culture during the first half of the 20th century, this historic center began going into decline as the wealthy moved out into the new western colonies as early as the end of the 19th century.

By the 1950s, the country’s main university UNAM moved almost all of its facilities out of the borough and into the newly built Ciudad Universitaria in the south of the city.

In the 1940s, the city government froze rents in the borough and by the late 1990s, when this was finally repealed, many tenants were paying the same prices they were in the 1950s. With no financial incentive to keep up their properties, landlords let their buildings disintegrate. Most of this occurred in the historic center, but this phenomenon also presented itself in other areas such as Colonia San Rafael and the Centro Urbano Benito Juárez as well.

Since the 1950s, the city has received the highest number of migrants from other parts of Mexico. Most of these come from very rural areas of the country and a significant percentage speak an indigenous language with Spanish as a second language or do not speak Spanish at all. As of 2005, seven percent of the borough’s population is made up of these migrants. These migrants have put strains on services such as education.

The borough was the hardest hit by the 1985 earthquake with 258 buildings completely crumbling, 143 partially collapsed and 181 seriously damaged. The result was the loss of 100,000 residents, just in the historic center.

Another area with major damage was Colonia Roma with a number of buildings collapsing completely. Even areas that did not suffer significant damage, such as Colonia San Rafael, were affected when homeless from other parts of the borough moved in, or Colonia Condesa, when wealthier residents moved out. Because of the rent situation, most of the damaged structures were never fixed or rebuilt, leading to slums or garbage-strewn vacant lots.

As late as the 2000s, buildings damaged from the event have collapsed. In 2003, the city government expropriated sixty-four properties thought to be in danger of sudden collapse due to damage suffered nearly 20 years earlier after a collapse of an apartment building in Colonia Vista Alegre, but in 2010 an apartment building partially collapsed in Colonia San Rafael, due to the same cause. Since the quake, the borough has invested in its own early warning system, which was created for it by UNAM.

Between the flight of wealthier residents from the historic center and the colonies that immediately surround it and the damage from the 1985 earthquake, parts of the borough became deserted at night. Former mansions had been converted into tenements for the poor, and the sidewalks and streets were taken over by pickpockets and street vendors, especially in the historic center.

This made the area unpalatable for tourists. As the historic center is the city’s main tourist attraction, the city lost its standing as a destination for international visitors, instead becoming an airport connection for other areas of the country.

Until recently, many of the restaurants in the area, even the best, would close early to allow employees time to get home because the area was not particularly safe at night.

Starting in the late 1990s, the city and federal governments, along with some private associations have worked to revitalize the borough, especially the historic center.

Starting in the early 2000s, the government infused 55 million USD into the Historic Center Trust and entered into a partnership with a business group led by Carlos Slim, to buy dozens of centuries-old buildings and other real estate to rehabilitate.

Work has concentrated on renovating historic buildings, repaving streets, and improving water, lighting, and other infrastructure. A number of the oldest streets near the Zocalo have been made into pedestrian only and most street vendors have been forced to move out of the historic center.

This paved the way for the opening of upscale eateries, bars, and fashionable stores. Also, young people are moving into downtown lofts. To attract more tourists, there are new red double-decker buses.

There have been other efforts in other parts of the borough such as in Colonia Juarez and Colonia Obrera but with mixed results.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

National Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

What is now the historic downtown of Mexico City roughly correlates with the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, which was founded around 1325. During the prehispanic era, the city developed in a planned fashion, with streets and canals aligned with the cardinal directions, leading to orderly square blocks. The island that the city was founded on was divided into four calpullis or neighborhoods that were divided by the main north-south roads leading to Tepeyac and Iztapalapa respectively and the west-east road that lead to Tacuba and to a dike into the lake, respectively. The calpullis were named Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Moyotla and Zoquipan, which had subdivisions and a “tecpan” or district council each. The intersection of these roads was the center of the city and of the Aztec world. Here were the Templo Mayor, the palaces of the tlatoani or emperors, palaces of nobles such as the “House of the Demons” and the “House of the Flowers”. Also located here were the two most renowned Aztec schools: the Telpuchcalli for secular studies and the Calmecac for priestly training. When the Spaniards arrived, the city had aqueducts built by Moctezuma Ilhuicamina and Ahuizotl as well as a large dike constructed to the east of the city.

After the Spanish conquest, this design remained largely intact, mostly due to the efforts of Alonso Garcia Bravo, who supervised much of the rebuilding of the city. This reconstruction conserved many of the main thoroughfares such as Tenayuca, renamed Vallejo; Tlacopan, renamed México Tacuba, and Tepeyac, now called the Calzada de los Misterios. They also kept major divisions of the city adding Christian prefixes to the names such as San Juan Moyotla, Santa María Tlaquechiuacan, San Sebastián Atzacualco and San Pedro Teopan. In fact, most of the centro historicos is built with the rubble of the destroyed Aztec city.

A number of people during this time, all Spaniards, accumulated vast wealth mostly through mining and commerce in the 17th and 18th centuries. This wealth is reflected in the various mansions scattered in the centro such as the Palace of Iturbide and Casa de Azulejos (House of Tiles). This house was built in the 16th century in Arab style but its namesake tiles were added in 1747 when the Count of the Valley of Orizaba ordered the Talavera tiles from Puebla.

In the early part of the 20th century, as a result of the Latin American posture of then-Minister of Public Education José Vasconcelos, many of the streets to the north and west of the Zocalo were renamed after Latin American countries.

Deterioration of the area

From Aztec times, the Centro Historico used to be where the wealthy and elite lived. However, in the early 20th century, these classes began to move to areas west and southwest of the Centro, to neighbourhoods such as Colonia Juárez, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Colonia Roma and Colonia Condesa. The Centro remained the commercial, political and intellectual center through the mid 20th century although it was around this time that UNAM moved most of its facilities to the new Ciudad Universitaria. The reason for the decline of the city center was partly man-made and partly natural. In the 1940s, the city government froze rents so that until 1998 when the government repealed the law, tenants were still paying 1950’s-level rents. With no financial incentive to keep up their properties, landlords let their buildings disintegrate. The 1985 earthquake took its toll on a number of these structures, which were never fixed or rebuilt, leading to slums and garbage-strewn vacant lots. The result was the loss of about 100,000 residents of the “Colonia Centro”, leaving the area almost deserted at night.

By the 1980s, so many had fled the Centro that many of its former mansions were either abandoned or turned into tenements for the poor, and its sidewalks and streets taken over by pickpockets and milling vendors. For many people, especially international visitors, Mexico City’s reputation for pollution, traffic and crime has made the city someplace to “get into and out of as fast as you can”, seeing it as little more than an airport through which to make their connecting flights to resort areas like Cozumel. Until recently, many of the restaurants in the area, even the best, would close early to allow employees time to get home because the area was not particularly safe at night.

Deterioration of religious buildings

Many of historic churches in the oldest parts of the city are in serious disrepair and are in danger of being lost. Efforts to save these churches are hampered by disagreements between the Church and the federal government. Because these churches are both active religious institutions and historical landmarks, their legal situation is complicated. By law, religious institutions cannot appeal to the government for financial help, but agencies like the National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULTA) do have say in how these places are maintained because of their historic value.

Some of the disagreement is over the extent of the deterioration. Conaculta does not believe that any of the 68 religious buildings in the oldest part of city are in imminent danger of collapse. However the Archdiocese of Mexico believes that the structural problems noted constitute a grave danger to both people and to the “incalculable artistic and historic value of the buildings.” One of the churches in imminent danger is called San Lorenzo Diácono y Mártir, with Our Lady of Loreto, La Santísima Trinidad and La Santa Cruz also requiring prompt attention to avoid collapse. The San Lorenzo and Loreto churches both have had incidences where large pieces of the building, a stone and a window respectively, have fallen, causing damage but no injuries. Despite efforts by the archdiocese to demonstrate the extent of the damage of many of the churches, Conaculta still maintains that none of the buildings are in danger of coming down. Another problem is that the depopulation of the historic center, which leaves these churches fairly empty and the diocese unable to fund restoration work.

Revitalization

Starting in the early 2000s, the government has infused 500 million Mexican pesos (55 million USD) into the Historic Center Trust and entered into a partnership with the Fundación Centro Histórico, an organization established by Carlos Slim, to buy dozens of centuries-old buildings for rehabilitation. The significance of this effort was recognized when, in 2006, the Historic Center was included in the 2006 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. Work began with the renovation of 34 blocks just north of the Zocalo, digging up the antiquated drainage system and improving water supply. An architect was put in charge of each of the thirteen main streets to restore the facades of more than 500 buildings. The latest infrastructure projects of this type have focused on the southwest portions of the area, on República de El Salvador, Talavera, Correo Mayor, Mesones and Pino Suárez streets, mostly focusing on repaving and improving the outdated drainage systems. In the process, artifacts dating from as early as the pre-Hispanic period have been unearthed.

All over the historic center, streets have been pedestrianized, buildings have been remodeled and restored, and new museums opened. In the 1990s, after many years of controversy, protests and even riots, most street vendors were evicted to other parts of the city. The impetus to bring things back to the city center included the construction of the new mayoral residence just off the Zocalo. The government has buried electric and telephone cables in the area, and replaced old asphalt with paving stones. It has also installed nearly 100 security cameras to help with crime issues. This paved the way for the opening of upscale eateries, bars and fashionable stores. Also, young people are moving into downtown lofts. To attract more tourists, there are new red double-decker buses.

As of 2004, investment in the city center has climbed to over 5 billion pesos or 438 million U.S. dollars. According to the Historic Center of Mexico City Trust, this has led to the creation of 15,000 jobs and property owners in the area are showing interest in improving on their investments here. It has also attracted outside investment into the area.

Historically, the Zócalo, or main plaza, has been a venue for fine and popular cultural events. Some example of events held here recently are Spencer Tunick’s photo shoot, the Ashes and Snow Nomadic museum and a skateboarding/BMX event that drew 50,000 young people on 24 August 2008. The Festival de México is an annual event with programs dedicated to art (popular and high) and academia. In 2008, was the 24th Festival with 254 performances and shows from over 20 countries.in 65 plazas and other locations in this section of the city.

It is central to national level protests such as those staged by Lopez Obrador after the 2006 Presidential Elections and the nationwide protest against crime held on August 30, 2008.

Just off the Zócalo are the Palacio Nacional, the Cathedral Metropolitana, the Templo Mayor with its adjoining museum, and Nacional Monte de Piedad building. The Palacio Nacional borders the entire east side of the Zocalo and contains the offices of the President of Mexico, the Federal Treasury, the National Archives as well as murals depicting pre-Hispanic life and a large mural filling the central stairway depicting the entire history of the Mexican nation from the Conquest on. This palace was built on the ruins of Moctezuma II’s palace beginning in 1521, using the same tezontle stone used to build the Aztec palace. It was originally in the Hernán Cortés family until the king of Spain bought it to house the viceroys of New Spain and remained so (despite being destroyed and rebuilt again in 1692) until Mexican independence. Facing the Zócalo above a central balcony is the Campana (Bell) of Dolores, which is rung by the president each 15th of Sept to celebrate Independence.

The Metropolitan Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, occupies the north end of the Zócalo. The site originally was part of the Aztec Sacred Precinct (called the Teocalli) and contained the main tzompantli, or rack for the skulls of sacrifice victims. The first church was erected between 1524 or 1526 and 1532 and was elevated to the rank of cathedral on 2 September 1530 by Pope Clement VII. The foundations for a new cathedral were begun in 1562 and the foundation stone was laid in 1573 in the time of Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras and of the 4th Viceroy. Although the works had not been concluded, the cathedral received its first dedication on 2 February 1656. The completion in 1813 of the neo-classical additions designed by Manuel Tolsa was celebrated on 15 August 2013 by Cardinal Carrera who opened and entered through the Holy Door in the center of the façade prior to celebrating Pontifical High Mass in the cathedral.

Between 1989 and 2000 extensive engineering works were conducted to arrest and rectify damage and distortions caused to the structure by the uneven rate and extent of the sinking of the building provoked by the continuous settlement of the ground on which it stands. This began with the drainage of the lake of the Valley of Mexico initiated in 1607 and has continued with the reduction of the water-table caused by the pumping of water for use by Mexico City’s rapidly expanding population. The last of the temporary props which had disfigured the interior of the building during the engineering works were removed on 28 November 2000.

The Templo Mayor archeological site and museum, is the center of the ancient teocalli, located now just northeast of the Zócalo. It was demolished by Hernán Cortés in the 1520s and its location forgotten. The exact site was determined in the beginning of the 20th century, but the decision to excavate was not made until 1978, when electrical workers chanced upon an eight-ton stone disk depicting the Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui. Excavation unearthed a pyramid built in multiple layers. This is the spot where, according to legend, the Aztecs saw their sign to settle from their wanderings, an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a snake in its beak, which is still the symbol of Mexico today.

The Nacional Monte de Piedad building is the national pawn shop, founded in 1775 and one of the largest second-hand shops in the world. On this site were houses that belonged to the last Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II, which Hernán Cortés took for his own after the Conquest. These houses originally stretched from modern-day Isabel la Catolica, Madero, Tacuba and Monte de Piedad streets, prompting one chronicler, Cervantes de Salazar to comment that the residence was not a palace but rather another city.

Santo Domingo refers to the Church of Santo Domingo and the adjoining plaza. Both are located three blocks north of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral following Republica de Brasil Street with Belisario Dominguez Street separating the two. Officially known as the Señor de la Expiación Chapel, the church is located on the north side of Belisario Dominguez and faces the plaza. It is all that is left from the first convent to be established in New Spain. To the south of the church is Plaza San Domingo. It is flanked to the west by the Portal de Evangelistas, which is a Tuscan colonnade with round arches. Scribes with typewriters and antique printing machines work in this Portal. Scribes offer their services to illiterate clients, often offering services similar to that of lawyers, counselors, and financial consultants. A statue of Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, a heroine of the Mexican War of Independence stands in a fountain in the middle of the plaza.

The San Ildefonso College currently is a museum and cultural center considered to be the birthplace of the Mexican muralism movement. San Ildefonso began as a prestigious Jesuit boarding school, and after the Reform War, it gained educational prestige again as National Preparatory School. This school and the building closed completely in 1978, then reopened as a museum and cultural center in 1994. The museum has permanent and temporary art and archeological exhibitions in addition to the many murals painted on its walls by José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and others. The complex is located between San Ildefonso Street and Justo Sierra Street in the historic center of Mexico City.

• Secretaría de Educación Pública at Calle Argentina
• Centro Cultural de España (Cultural Center of Spain)
• Museum Archive of Photography
• Lirico Theatre
• Antigua Escuela de Economía (Old School of Economics)
• Colegio Nacional, located on The Colegio Nacional Building
• Old Customs building
• Palace of the Inquisition (Museum of Mexican Medicine)

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is located just off the main plaza of Mexico City on the corners of Pino Suárez and Carranza Streets. It was built between 1935 and 1941 by Antonio Muñoz Garcia. Prior to the Conquest, this site was reserved for the ritual known as “Dance of the Flyers” which is still practice today in Papantla. Its ownership was in dispute during much of the colonial period, eventually becoming the site of a very large market known as El Volador. The interior of the building contains four panels painted in 1941 by José Clemente Orozco, two of which are named “The Social Labor Movement” and “National Wealth.” There is also one mural done by American artist George Biddle entitled “War and Peace” at the entrance to the library.

• Temple of Saint Augustine
• The original El Palacio de Hierro store
• The original Liverpool department store
• Saint Augustine House
• The Chapel of the Most Holy Conception of Tlaxcoaque
• Church of San Bernardo

The Palace of Iturbide – this large palatial home, located in the historic center of Mexico City on Madero Street #17 was built by the Count of San Mateo Valparaíso in the 18th century as a wedding gift for his daughter. It gained the name “Palace of Iturbide” because Agustín de Iturbide lived and accepted the crown as Mexico’s first emperor there after independence from Spain. Today, the restored building houses the Fomento Cultural Banamex and has been renamed the Palacio de Cultura Banamex.

The Torre Latinoamericana This is one of the best-known skyscrapers in Latin America. It was begun in 1948 and completed in 1956 and is 182 meters tall, antennae included. It is located on the corner of Eje Central and Juarez Streets. It was the tallest tower in Mexico prior to the construction of Torre Pemex. The building has survived two major earthquakes since it was built, one in 1957 and the other in 1985.

The Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) is the Mexican National Art Museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building at No. 8 Tacuba, Col. Centro, Mexico City. It houses a collection representing the history of Mexican art from the late pre-Hispanic era to the early 20th century. It is recognizable by Manuel Tolsá’s large equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain who was the monarch just before Mexico gained its Independence. It was originally in the Zocalo but it was moved to several locations, not out of deference to the king but rather to conserve a piece of art, according to the plaque at the base. It arrived to its final location in 1979.

The Palacio de Correos de Mexico (Postal Palace of Mexico City) also known as the “Correo Mayor” (Main Post Office) is located in the historic center of Mexico City, on the Eje Central (Lazaro Cardenas) near the Palacio de Bellas Artes. It is an early 20th-century building built in the style of an Italian Renaissance palace. It was designed by Italian Adamo Boari, who also designed part of the Palacio de Bellas Artes across the street.

• Casa de Azulejos
• Colegio de Minería (College of Mining)
• Mexican Army Museum originally Bethlemites Hospital
• Garden of the Triple Alliance
• Cámara de Senadores
• Museo de Estanquillo (cartoons and magazines)
• Temple of San Felipe Neri “La Profesa”
• Interactive Museum of Economics
• Santa Clara church – Library of Congress
• Senate of Mexico Chambers
• Chamber of Deputies
• Teatro de la Ciudad
• Academia Mexicana

The Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público is an art museum located at Moneda Street #4. It is housed in what was the Palacio del Arzobispado (Palace of the Archbishopric), built in 1530 under Friar Juan de Zumárraga on the base of the destroyed pyramid dedicated to the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. It remained the archbishphoric until 1867 when the Finance Ministry Accountancy Department was established there. The modern museum houses an exhibit dedicated to this god as well as a large art collection.

La Santísima Church is located the cornoer of La Santísima and Emiliano Zapata streets. Its full name is Temple and Hospital of the Most Holy Trinity (Templo y Antiguo Hospital de la Santisíma Trinidad). The church was built between 1755 and 1783 as a temple for the adjoining hospital/hospice for priests. The church still retains its original function but the adjoining hospital and office sites have since moved into private hands with only parts of the original structures still intact and preserved. The church is also noted for the fact that it has sunk almost three meters since it was built.

The José Luis Cuevas Museum is located just off the main plaza, or Zocalo of Mexico City in a building that was the convent for the neighboring Church of Santa Ines (Agnes of Rome). This convent was founded in 1600 by Don Diego Caballero and his wife Doña Inés de Velasco. The convent existed until 1861, when, due to the Nationalization of Church Property Act, all convents and monasteries in the country were disbanded. The convent’s church and residence hall where separated and the Church of Santa Inés still maintains its original function. The residence hall became private property, functioning mostly as tenements until artist José Luis Cuevas bought the property with the intention to restoring it and establishing the current museum dedicated to his art and art of contemporary Latin America.

The House of the First Print Shop in the Americas at the corner of Moneda and Licenciado Primo Verdad streets was the home of the first printing press/print shop in the New World. The house was originally constructed by Gerónimo de Aguilar in 1524 and is located on the outer edge of what was the sacred precinct of the Templo Mayor prior to the Conquest.

• Cathedral Nuestra Señora de Balvanera and Sanctuary of San Charbel
• Palacio de la Autonomia de UNAM, (Palace of UNAM’s Autonomy)
• Departamento de Estadistica Nacional (Dept. of National Statistics) building

Alameda Central is a public park in downtown Mexico City, adjacent to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, between Juarez Avenue and Hidalgo Avenue. It is a green garden with paved paths and decorative fountains and statues, and is frequently the center of civic events.

The area used to be an Aztec marketplace and after the Conquest, the Catholic Church used the area for the burning of heretics and witches.

The park was created in 1592, when Viceroy Luis de Velasco decided to create green space here as a public park. By the late 19th century, the park included a bandstand and gas (now electric) lamps.

The name comes from the Spanish word álamo, which means poplar tree, which were planted here.

On the south side of the park, facing toward the street is the Hemiciclo a Juárez, which is a large white semi-circular monument to Benito Juárez, who is one of Mexico’s most beloved presidents.

• Palacio de Bellas Artes
• Teatro Hidalgo
• Parish of Santa Cruz
• Museo Nacional de la Estampa (National Print Museum)
• Franz Mayer Museum
• Parish of La Santa Vera Cruz de San Juan de Dios
• Ex Temple of Corpus Christi

Mexico City’s Chinatown, known locally as “Barrio Chino”, is located on two blocks of Dolores Street, just south of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

It is very small, consisting only of a number of restaurants and businesses that import goods. Its diminished size is because most descendants of Chinese immigrants to Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries either intermarried with the local Mexican population and/or were expelled from the country in the 1930s.

Despite this, it is considered the nucleus of the approximately 3,000 families with Chinese heritage in Mexico City.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

National Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

Metro station Revolucion.

If you walking along the Paseo de la Reforma from Chapultepec to the Historic Center, then just take a left after the Roundabout of the Women Who Fight, formerly there was the Monument to Columbus (Columbus roundabout).

Mexico City’s iconic monument in real-time.

Today, Paseo de la Reforma has transformed into a vibrant and bustling avenue filled with a wide range of tourist attractions, luxury restaurants and hotels, office buildings, art exhibitions, and new construction.

Paseo de la Reforma has become a traditional place for the Mexicans to celebrate or protest. Most protest rallies commonly go along Paseo de la Reforma from the Angel to the Zócalo or from the Zócalo to Los Pinos.

Many parades also pass through the whole Paseo de la Reforma. The iconic Angel of Independence roundabout is a traditional place to celebrate the victories of the national football team, mainly during the World Cup.

19th century

During the Second French Intervention in Mexico in 1864, the Republican government was in hiding in northern Mexico, and the government of Maximilian I was consolidated in power in Mexico City.

He proclaimed, and in some cases initiated, a number of reforms aimed at modernizing the country. These included the construction of infrastructure to improve internal communications, including roads and railways.

One such type of project was the creation of a series of boulevards imitating European boulevards, such as the Ringstrasse in Vienna, or the boulevards then being built in Paris under Napoleon III, with grand monuments.

Two such projects were started: one on Avenida Chapultepec, which was never completed, and another to connect Mexico City with its residence in Chapultepec Castle (where Emperor Maximilian I then resided).

The latter was named Paseo de la Emperatriz in honor of his wife and consort – Empress Carlota. Austrian mining engineer Alois Bolland was appointed project manager and designed what was eventually built.

The route and construction of the six boulevards radiating from the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, were entrusted to a committee of distinguished architects and artists. The committee’s original proposal was planned.

This would require the demolition of a large part of the buildings in the city.

Was decided to start a boulevard on what was then the outskirts of the city, 1.5 km west of the Zócalo, where Avenida Bucareli intersects with Avenida Juárez and where the equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain stood.

From there, the Paseo route led to the lower part of the royal residential area at Chapultepec Castle, where it connected with the road leading to the hilltop castle.

The construction of the boulevard was entrusted to the Austrian engineers and included 2 vehicular paths, each 9 m wide, a central island 1.5 m wide, and 2 side walkways, each 9 m wide, decorated with ornamental plants and trees.

The city government and the owners of the agricultural land along the route opposed the plan. Reasons included the fragility of the land, which was the reclaimed lake bed of Lake Texcoco, and that the saltiness of the soil would supposedly not support the lush vegetation required.

Despite opposition, the project continued. After a competition, it was assigned to the brothers Juan and Ramón Agea under the supervision of the Ministry of Development, Colonization, Industry and Commerce, headed by Luis Robles Pezuela.

Of the original 3.15 km-long project, only one part was completed between 1864 and 1865, a road 20 m wide, which was enormous for those days, without a central median, only a few areas on the side reserved for horses to rest.

There were practically no buildings along the boulevard and sidewalks were not considered necessary.

The Paseo didn’t include bridges or similar constructions to cross the canals and rivers which then flowed near what is now Colonia Tabacalera (then Hacienda de la Teja).

The Paseo was at this time for the exclusive use of the imperial court, a policy enforced by a dedicated police force. At the time, people with horses or horses and carriages promenaded along the Paseo de Bucareli (today Avenida Bucareli between Avenidas Juárez and Chapultepec.

After the downfall of the Second Mexican Empire and the restoration of the republic in 1867, the Paseo de la Emperatriz was forgotten. The Paseo was renamed Paseo Juárez and then again renamed Paseo de Degollado in honor of General Santos Degollado.

On February 17, 1867, the Paseo officially opened to the public while work continued on it.

By 1870 it had tree-lined pedestrian medians between “el Caballito” and the Palm Tree Roundabout, carried out by the Ministry of Development under Francisco P. Herrera. Between 1872 and 1876 an eight-meter bridge was built at Hacienda de la Teja and the pedestrian medians were completed all the way to Chapultepec.

Eucalyptus and ash trees and willows were planted and four monumental roundabouts were built between the Palm Tree Roundabout and Avenida Juárez. In 1872 the boulevard was renamed Paseo de la Reforma.

On its flanks, upscale subdivisions were built, Colonia Americana – today Colonia Juárez, and Colonia Cuauhtémoc. The French style of the area was epitomized at the time by frequent comparisons of Paseo de la Reforma to the Champs Elysées in Paris.

Renovation

In 2003, Mexico City’s government started a renewal program for Paseo de la Reforma.

It included the maintenance of the existent gardens and the creation of new ones, the intensive cleaning and sweeping of streets and sidewalks, the construction of new pink quarry sidewalks and benches, the creation of access bays in the Zoo, lake, and Modern Art Museum for touristic and school buses, the installation of new lighting, the moving of the monument to Cuauhtémoc to the crossing of Insurgentes Avenue and Paseo de la Reforma, the construction of prism-shaped concrete structures in the median which also have plants and flowers, the promotion of Reforma as a cultural walk organizing different expositions along the avenue sidewalks, and the maintenance of the monuments, sculptures, and fountains.

Also, a tourist route that goes from Chapultepec Park to the Historic Center along Reforma was established by a double-deck bus called Turibus.

With the renewal project, new life has come to the avenue. It has become a main attraction of the city and the most expensive one to build on. However, after many of Mexico City’s banks and businesses left Paseo de la Reforma for the Santa Fe business district in the last decade, the boulevard has been the center of a real estate renaissance.

Remarkable buildings built in recent years are Torre Mayor, Torre HSBC in the Ángel roundabout, Torre Libertad with St. Regis Hotel in the Diana fountain roundabout, and Reforma 222 designed by famous Mexican architect Teodoro González de León at Reforma and Havre St. Recently opened mix-used developments include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences and a Park Hyatt Hotel & Residences.

Architecture

During President Díaz’s regime, Paseo de la Reforma became very popular among elite families as a residential area. Few of these original houses built in different European architectural styles remain and office blocks have been built in their place over the years.

Although there is no single block that has kept its former architecture, a couple of scattered buildings show the opulence enjoyed by the elites during Porfirio Díaz’s regime.

Although most of the modern buildings are unremarkable, the Art Deco Loteria Nacional building and the functionalist IMSS building are an exception. Today Paseo de la Reforma houses offices ranging from the Mexican Federal Government to Banks and brokerage houses. The newer buildings show a mix of contemporary styles and the commonly used style for office buildings.

Five skyscrapers were recently along the boulevard between the entrance to Chapultepec Park and the Diana the Huntress fountain: Torre Reforma (244m), Punto Chapultepec (238m), Torre BBVA Bancomer (235m), and Torre Diana (158m).

Monuments

Many monuments to people and events in Mexico’s history and the history of the Americas are situated on and along Reforma.

Honored people include the Niños Héroes – the Heroic Cadets of the Battle of Chapultepec – with a particularly grand monument at the entrance of Chapultepec Park, a Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín.

There is also a fountain with sculptures that commemorate the nationalization of Mexico’s oil reserves and industry in 1938, and the Diana the Huntress fountain that includes a statue featuring the Roman goddess Diana originally named The Arrow Thrower of the North Star.

One of the most famous monuments of the Paseo is the Angel of Independence – a tall column with a gilded statue of a Winged Victory (that bears resemblance with an angel, therefore its common name) on its top and many marble statues on its base depicting the heroes of the Mexican War of Independence, built to commemorate the centennial of Mexico’s independence in 1910.

The base contains the tombs of several key figures in Mexico’s War of Independence.

Monument to the Revolution

Near the central section of Reforma, across from the Alameda, is the Monument to the Revolution.

This is an enormous dome supported by four arches. It was originally planned, by Porfirio Díaz, to be a part of a new parliament building, but it never was completed because of the start of the Mexican Revolution.

After Díaz’s overthrow, it became a monument to the revolution that deposed him.

The remains of Francisco I. Madero and several other heroes of the Mexican Revolution are buried here.

In order from Chapultepec toward the Historic Center:

• Petrolios Fountain
• Jose Rizal Monument
• Diana the Huntress Fountain
• Angel of Independence
• Ahuehuete Roundabout (Palm Tree Roundabout)
• Cuauhtemoc Monument
• Roundabout of the Women Who Fight (Columbus Monument)
• Fountain of the Republic
• Simon Bolivar Monument
• Monument to Jose de San Martin
• Monument to Cuitlahuac

Before the conquest, the area that the Zócalo occupied was an open space, in the center of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

It was bordered:

• The “New Houses” or Palace of Moctezuma II in the east
• The “Old Houses”, the palace of Axayácatl, in the west

From 1469 to 1481, the Axayacatl Palace was the residence of Emperor Ahuizotl, Moctezuma’s uncle and immediate predecessor.

The European-style plaza was not part of the Aztec Empire’s capital. Tenochtitlan had a sacred area or “teocalli” that was the absolute center of the city, but it was located north and northeast of the modern Zócalo.

Post-conquest (1519–1821)

The modern Zócalo was founded by Alonso García Bravo shortly after the invasion and destruction of Tenochtitlan. Cortés redesigned the city for symbolic purposes, maintaining four main neighborhoods called “Capullis”.

The Cathedral of Mexico City was erected at the intersection of these neighborhoods.

The Plaza was divided into the “Plaza Mayor” (Main Square) in the southern half and the “Plaza Chica” (Small Square) in the northern half. Over time, the growing city absorbed the Plaza Chica.

The Plaza was bordered by the Cathedral to the north, Cortés’s new palace to the east, Portales de Mercaderes (Merchants’ Portals) on the west, and the Portal of the Flowers and the House of the Ayuntamiento on the south.

During early colonial times, the Plaza faced challenges like flooding. In 1629, the Plaza was flooded with water two meters deep, causing damage to merchants and requiring reconstruction.

The construction of the Cathedral in the latter half of the 16th century altered the Plaza’s appearance. The Plaza became crowded with market stalls in the 17th century. Attempts to clear the Plaza for the Parian, a set of shops, were made but were only partially successful.

In 1789, Charles IV of Spain proclaimed the clearing of the Plaza, and Viceroy Juan Vicente Güemes Pacheco undertook renovations.

The Plaza was repaved, gutters covered with stone blocks, and fountains installed. The Aztec Calendar was unearthed during this work. The Plaza was converted into a public space with benches, lamps, and iron grating separating it from the Cathedral.

The Plaza underwent significant changes in the early 19th century, with the addition of an equestrian statue of Charles IV by Manuel Tolsá.

It was inaugurated in 1803 and became the backdrop for events during the Mexican War of Independence. The Plaza was renamed the “Plaza of the Constitution,” marking its role in the historical context.

The last changes before Independence in 1821 included the placement of the Cross of Mañozca and another cross by Manuel Tolsá at different corners of the Plaza. These were set on Neoclassical pedestals.

Independence and the 1828 Parián Riot

A symbolic move upon Independence was the dismantling and removal of the equestrian monument to Charles IV from Plaza.

The statue itself can still be seen in front of the National Art Museum where its current, and much smaller, base states that it is preserved solely for its artistic value.

The statue’s former oval base was moved to what was then the University building and the balustrade was moved to the Alameda Central. This left the Plaza bare except for the Parian.

On 4 and 5 December 1828, the Parián market, the most active of Mexico City’s markets, was looted and damaged by a popular uprising. Several merchants died and most were ruined.

President Santa Anna finally had the Parián demolished in 1843. This left the Plaza bare again, except for some ash trees and flower gardens that were planted and protected by stone borders.

Santa Anna wanted to build a monument to Mexican Independence in the center of the Plaza but his project got only as far as the base (zócalo), which stayed there for decades and gave the Plaza its current popular name.

It stayed this way until 1866 when the Paseo del Zócalo was created in response to the number of people who were using the plaza to take walks. A garden with footpaths was created, fountains were placed at each corner, 72 iron benches were installed and the area was lighted by hydrogen gas lamps.

Santa Anna’s base, however, was not removed.

Era of the Porfiriato

In 1878, Antonio Escandon donated a kiosk to the city which was set over and on top of Santa Anna’s base. It was lit with four large iron candelabras and designed to be similar to one in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

Soon afterward, the part of the Zócalo was converted into a streetcar station with a ticket kiosk and stand. The streetcars and lighting were converted to electric power in 1894, and the Zócalo’s paths were paved with asphalt in 1891.

From the latter half of the 19th century to the beginning of the twentieth, the Zócalo was again filled with market stalls, including the “Centro Mercantil” which sold fabric, clothing, and Art Nouveau stonework.

The other stalls concentrated on more mundane merchandise. This caused pedestrians to take their walks on Alameda Central or on San Francisco and Madero streets, to the west of the Zócalo.

Zocalo in 1951

20th century

During the Decena Trágica (the ten days from 9 to 19 February 1913), the National Palace was bombarded from the nearby military fort, incidentally damaging the Zócalo.

In 1914, the ash trees planted in the previous century (which meanwhile had grown considerably) were taken out; new footpaths, grassy areas, and garden space were created; and palm trees were planted in each corner of the plaza.

The Zócalo was a meeting place for protests on 1 May. In 1968, students protested against the authoritarian measures taken by then-president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. It was also the starting point of the marathon run in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

But the plaza deteriorated until, by the 1970s, all that was left were light poles and a large flagpole in the middle. Then the ground was leveled again, the train tracks taken out, and the whole plaza cemented over.

Automobile parking was prohibited and the plaza’s shape was squared to 200 m on each side. Later in the 1970s, the Zócalo was repaved with pink cobblestones; small trees protected by metal grates were planted, and small areas of grass were seeded around the flagpole.

By the end of the 20th century, the Zócalo and much of the city center, were in serious decline. The Zocalo and its surrounding area were a slum of gutted buildings, dark and dirty streets crowded with street vendors, and vacant lots littered with trash.

In the late 1990s, was launched a $300,000,000 renovation of the Zócalo and the surrounding city center.

21st century

Was launched a campaign to perform maintenance works in the Historic Center.

In 2010, a replica of the Angel de la Independencia was brought to Zócalo as a way of spreading out the protesters from the original Angel site, which is located in a financial area, with a high traffic flow, making policing more difficult than the Zócalo.

Explore Mexico City’s iconic square in real time.

In 1785 Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez ordered the construction of a stately home for himself at the highest point of Chapultepec Hill. Francisco Bambitelli, Lieutenant Colonel of the Spanish Army and engineer, drew up the blueprint and began the construction on August 16 of the same year.

After Bambitelli’s departure to Havana, Captain Manuel Agustín Mascaró took over the leadership of the project and during his tenure the works proceeded at a rapid pace. Mascaró was accused of building a fortress with the intent of rebelling against the Spanish Crown from there. Bernardo, the viceroy, died suddenly on November 8, 1786, fueling speculation that he was poisoned. No evidence has yet been found which supports this claim.

Lacking a head engineer, the Spanish Crown ordered that the building be auctioned at a price equivalent to one-fifth of the quantity thus far spent thereon. After finding no buyers Viceroy Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla y Horcasitas intended the building to house the General Archive of the Kingdom of the New Spain; that idea was not to prosper either despite already having the blueprints adapted for this purpose.

Alexander von Humboldt visited the site in 1803 and condemned the sale of the palace’s windows by the Royal Treasury as a way of raising funds for the Crown. The building was finally bought in 1806 by the municipal government of Mexico City.

Chapultepec Castle was abandoned during the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and for many years later, until 1833. In that year the building was decreed to become the location of the Colegio Militar (Military Academy); as a sequence of several structural modifications had to be done, including the addition of the watchtower known as Caballero Alto (“Tall Knight”).

On September 13, 1847, the Niños Héroes (“Hero Children”) died defending the castle while it was taken by United States forces during the Battle of Chapultepec of the Mexican-American War. They are honored with a large mural on the ceiling above the main entrance to the castle.

The United States Marine Corps honors the Battle of Chapultepec and the subsequent occupation of Mexico City through the first line of the “Marines’ Hymn,” From the Halls of Montezuma. Marine Corps tradition maintains that the red stripe worn on the trousers of officers and noncommissioned officers, and commonly known as the blood stripe commemorates the high number of Marine NCOs and officers killed storming the castle of Chapultepec in 1847.

Several new rooms were built on the second floor of the palace during the tenure of President Miguel Miramón, who was also an alumnus of the Military Academy.

The castle, now known as Castillo de Miravalle, started to acquire its current look during the Second Mexican Empire, when Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and his wife Empress Carlota chose it as their residence and the seat of their Court in 1864. The Emperor hired several European and Mexican architects, among them Julius Hofmann, Carl Gangolf Kayser, Carlos Schaffer, Eleuterio Méndez and Ramón Cruz Arango, to design the several projects, which followed a neoclassical style and made the palace more habitable. European architects Kayser and Hofmann worked on several other revival castles, including Neuschwanstein Castle – built by Maximilian’s Wittelsbach cousin Ludwig II of Bavaria twenty years after Chapultepec’s renovation.

Botanist Wilhelm Knechtel was in charge of creating the aerial garden located on the roof of the building. Additionally, the Emperor brought from Europe countless pieces of furniture, objets d’art and other fine household items that are exhibited to this day.

At this time, the castle was still located on the outskirts of Mexico City. Maximilian ordered the construction of a straight boulevard (modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna’s Ringstrasse and the Champs-Élysées in Paris), to connect the Imperial residence with the city centre, and named it Paseo de la Emperatriz (“Promenade of the Empress”). Following the reestablishment of the Republic in 1867 by President Benito Juárez and the end of the Reform War (Guerra de Reforma) the boulevard was renamed Paseo de la Reforma.

The castle fell into disuse after the fall of the Second Mexican Empire in 1867. in 1876, a decree established it as an Astronomical, Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory on the site, which was opened in 1878. However, the observatory was only functional for five years until they decided to move it to the former residence of the Archbishop in Tacubaya. The reason was to allow the return of the Colegio Militar to the premises as well as transforming the building into the presidential residence.

The palace underwent several structural changes from 1882 and during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz. The other Presidents who made the palace their official residence were Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodríguez. It was used for a time as an official guest house or residence for foreign dignitaries.

Finally on February 3, 1939, President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed a law establishing Chapultepec Castle as the seat of the National Museum of History (Museo Nacional de Historia) with the collections of the former National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, (now the National Museum of Cultures). The museum was opened on September 27, 1944. President Cárdenas moved the official Mexican presidential residence to Los Pinos, and never lived in Chapultepec Castle.

• In 1996, the castle was a film location for the Academy Award-nominated movie William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Many views of the castle as the Capulet Mansion can be seen throughout the film.
• In the 1954 American war film Vera Cruz starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, Chapultepec was portrayed using elaborate sets and decor.
• In the 2006 video game Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, a level existed in and around the castle.
• Chapultepec Castle has been used as a model of castle architecture to design buildings such as the 13th Regiment Armory (Sumner Armory), in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, US.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

National Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

After the destruction of Tenochtitlan, the Templo Mayor, like most of the rest of the city, was taken apart and covered over by the new Spanish colonial city. The Temple’s exact location was forgotten, although by the 20th-century scholars had a good idea where to look for it. This was based on the archeological work done at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th.

Leopoldo Batres did some excavation work at the end of the 19th century under the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral because at this time, the temple was thought to be there. In the first decades of the 20th century, Manuel Gamio found part of the southwest corner of the temple and his finds were put on public display.

However, it did not generate great public interest in excavating further because the zone was an upper-class residential area. In 1933, Emilio Cuevas found part of a staircase and beam. In 1948, Hugo Moedano and Elma Estrada Balmori excavated a platform containing serpent heads and offerings. In 1966, Eduardo Contreras and Jorge Angula excavated a chest containing offerings that was first explored by Gamio.

The push to fully excavate the site did not come until late in the 20th century.

On 21 February 1978, workers for the electric company were digging at a place in the city then popularly known as the “island of the dogs”. It was so named because it was slightly elevated over the rest of the neighborhood, and when that was flooded, street dogs would congregate there. Just over two meters down, the diggers struck a pre-Hispanic monolith. This stone turned out to be a huge disk of over 3.25 meters (10.7 feet) in diameter, 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) thick and weighing 8.5 metric tons (8.4 long tons; 9.4 short tons). The relief on the stone was later determined to be Coyolxauhqui, Huitzilopochtli’s sister, dating to the end of the 15th century.

From 1978 to 1982, specialists directed by archeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma worked on the project to excavate the Temple. Initial excavations found that many of the artifacts were in good enough condition to study. Efforts coalesced into the Templo Mayor Project, which was authorized by presidential decree.

To excavate, 13 buildings in this area had to be demolished. Nine of these were built in the 1930s and four dated from the 19th century, and had preserved colonial elements. During excavations, more than 7,000 objects were found, mostly offerings including effigies, clay pots in the image of Tlaloc, skeletons of turtles, frogs, crocodiles, and fish, snail shells, coral, some gold, alabaster, Mixtec figurines, ceramic urns from Veracruz, masks from what is now Guerrero state, copper rattles, decorated skulls and knives of obsidian and flint. These objects are housed in the Templo Mayor Museum. This museum is the result of the work done since the early 1980s to rescue, preserve and research the Templo Mayor, its Sacred Precinct and all objects associated with it. The museum exists to make all of the finds available to the public.

The excavated site consists of two parts: the temple itself, exposed and labeled to show its various stages of development, along with some other associated buildings, and the museum, built to house the smaller and more fragile objects.

Mexican pyramids were typically expanded by building over prior ones, using the bulk of the former as a base for the latter, as later rulers sought to expand the temple to reflect the growing greatness of the city of Tenochtitlan. Therefore, digging down through this pyramid takes us back in time. The first temple was begun by the Aztecs the year after they founded the city, and the pyramid was rebuilt six times. All seven stages of the Templo Mayor, except the first, have been excavated and assigned to the reigns of the emperors who were responsible for them.

Construction of the first Templo Mayor began sometime after 1325. This first pyramid is only known through historical records, because the high water table of the old lakebed prevents excavation. According to these records, the first pyramid was built with earth and perishable wood, which may not have survived to the present time.

The second temple was built during the reigns of Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and Chimalpopoca between 1375 and 1427. The upper part of this temple has been excavated, exposing two stone shrines covered in stucco on the north side. A chacmool was uncovered as well. On the south side, there is a sacrificial stone called a “téchcatl” and a sculpted face.

The third temple was built between 1427 and 1440 during the reign of Itzcoatl. A staircase with eight stone standard-bearers is from this stage bearing the glyph with the year Four-Reed (1431) These standard bearers act as “divine warriors” guarding the access to the upper shrines.

The fourth temple was constructed between 1440 and 1481 during the reigns of Moctezuma I and Axayacatl. This stage is considered to have the richest of the architectural decorations as well as sculptures. Most offerings from the excavations are from this time. The great platform was decorated with serpents and braziers, some of which are in the form of monkeys and some in the form of Tlaloc. At this time, the stairway to the shrine of Tlaloc was defined by a pair of undulating serpents and in the middle of this shrine was a small altar defined by a pair of sculpted frogs. The circular monolith of Coyolxauhqui also dates from this time.

The fifth temple (1481–1486) is dated during the short reign of Tizoc. During these five years, the platform was recovered in stucco and the ceremonial plaza was paved.

The sixth temple was built during the reign of Ahuizotl. He finished some of the updates made by Tizoc and made his own; as shown on the carvings of the “commemoration stone of the huei teocalli”, showing the two tlatoqueh celebrating the opening of the temple during the last day of the month Panquetzaliztli dedicated to Huitzilopochtli; day 7 acatl of the year 8 acatl (Dec 19th, 1487). The Sacred Precinct was walled off and this wall was decorated with serpent heads. He built three shrines and the House of the Eagle Warriors.

The seventh and last temple is what Hernán Cortés and his men saw when they arrived to Tenochtitlan in 1519. Very little of this layer remains because of the destruction the Spaniards wrought when they conquered the city. Only a platform to the north and a section of paving in the courtyard on the south side can still be seen.

Most of what is known about this temple is based on the historical record. It was at the time the largest and most important active ceremonial center. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún reported that the Sacred Precinct had 78 buildings; the Templo Mayor towered above all of them.

The pyramid was composed of four sloped terraces with a passage between each level, topped by a great platform that measured approximately 80 by 100 meters (262 by 328 feet). It had two stairways to access the two shrines on the top platform. One was dedicated to Tlaloc, the god of water on the left side (as you face the structure), and one to Huitzilopochtli, deity of war and of the sun, on the right side. The two temples were approximately 60 meters (200 feet) in height, and each had large braziers where the sacred fires continuously burned. The entrance of each temple had statues of robust and seated men which supported the standard-bearers and banners of handmade bark paper. Each stairway was defined by balustrades flanking the stairs terminating in menacing serpent heads at the base. These stairways were used only by the priests and sacrificial victims. The entire building was originally covered with stucco and polychrome paint.

The deities were housed inside the temple, shielded from the outside by curtains. The idol of Huitzilopochtli was modeled from amaranth seeds held together with honey and human blood. Inside of him were bags containing jade, bones and amulets to give life to the god. This figure was constructed annually and it was richly dressed and fitted with a mask of gold for his festival held during the Aztec month of Panquetzaliztli. At the end of the festival, the image was broken apart and shared among the populace to be eaten.

In his description of the city, Cortés records that he and the other Spaniards were impressed by the number and magnificence of the temples constructed in Tenochtitlan, but that was tempered by this disdain for their beliefs and human sacrifice.

On 14 November 1519, Cortes seized the emperor Moctezuma II and ordered the destruction of all the religious relics of the Aztecs. He ordered a Catholic cross placed on the Templo Mayor. While Cortes left for Veracruz to confront Spaniards looking to arrest him, Pedro de Alvarado learned of a plan to attack the Spaniards, and staged a pre-emptive attack on the Aztecs in the Sacred Precinct while they celebrated a religious festival. Unarmed and trapped within the walls of the Sacred Precinct, an estimated 8,000–10,000 Aztec nobles were killed. When word of the massacre spread throughout the city, the people turned on the Spaniards, killing seven, wounding many, and driving the rest back to their quarters. The Spaniards were trapped between two Aztec forces and 68 were captured alive. Ten of these Spanish captives were immediately sacrificed at the Temple and their severed heads were thrown back to the Spaniards. The others were sacrificed at the Great Temple that night, which could be seen from the Spanish camps. The sacrificed Spaniards were flayed and their faces — with beards attached — were tanned and sent to allied towns, both to solicit assistance and to warn against betraying the alliance.

After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the lands controlled by the Aztecs became part of the Spanish empire. All the temples, including the Templo Mayor, were sacked, taking all objects of gold and other precious materials. Cortés, who had ordered the destruction of the existing capital, had a Mediterranean-style city built on the site. Essential elements of the old imperial center, including the Templo Mayor, were buried under similarly key features of the new Spanish city in what is now the historical downtown of the Mexico City. The Templo Mayor and Sacred Precinct were demolished and a Spanish church, later the main cathedral, was built on the western half of the precinct.

According to tradition, the Templo Mayor is located on the exact spot where the god Huitzilopochtli gave the Mexica people his sign that they had reached the promised land: an eagle on a nopal cactus with a snake in its mouth.

The Templo Mayor was partially a symbolic representation of the Hill of Coatepec, where according to Mexica myth, Huitzilopochtli was born. Huitzilopochtli emerged from his mother Coatlicue fully grown and fully armed to battle his sister Coyolxauhqui and her brothers the Centzon Huitznahua who intended to kill him and their mother. Huitzilopochtli was victorious, slaying and dismembering his sister. Her body was then thrown to the bottom of the hill. As the southern half of the Great Temple represented Coatepec (on the side dedicated to Huitzilopochtli), the great stone disk with Coyolxauhqui’s dismembered body was found at the foot of this side of the temple. The northern half represented Tonacatepetl, the mountain home of Tlaloc.

The sacred ballcourt and skull rack were located at the foot of the stairs of the twin temples, to mimic, like the stone disk, where Huitzilopochtli was said to have placed the goddess’ severed head. These locations served as a place for the reenactment of the mythical conflict.

The various levels of the Temple also represent the cosmology of the Aztec world. First of all, it is aligned with the cardinal directions with gates that connect to roads leading in these directions. This indicates the place where the plane of the world that humans live in intersects the thirteen levels of the heavens, called Topan and the nine levels of the underworld, called Mictlan.

Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, in his essay “Symbolism of the Templo Mayor,” posits that the orientation of the temple is indicative of the total vision that the Mexica had of the universe (cosmovision). He states that the “principal center, or navel, where the horizontal and vertical planes intersect, that is, the point from which the heavenly or upper plane and the plane of the Underworld begin and the four directions of the universe originate, is the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan.” Matos Moctezuma supports his supposition by claiming that the temple acts as an embodiment of a living myth where “all sacred power is concentrated and where all the levels intersect.” Said myth is the birth and struggle between Huitzilopochtli and Coyolxauhqui.

The Sacred Precinct of the Templo Mayor encompassed an area of almost 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) and it was surrounded by a wall called the “coatepantli” (serpent wall). Among the most important buildings were the ballcourt, the Calmecac (area for priests), and the temples dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and the sun. The Templo Mayor itself delineated the eastern side of the Sacred Precinct.

On the sides of the Templo Mayor, archeologists have excavated a number of palatial rooms and conjoining structures. One of the best preserved and most important is the Palace (or House) of the Eagle Warriors. This area dates back to the fourth stage of the temple, around 1469. It was excavated in 1981 and 1982 by José Francisco Hinojosa. It is a large L-shaped room with staircases decorated with sculptures of eagle heads. To enter this main room, one had to pass through an entrance guarded by two large sculpted representations of these warriors. The Eagle Warriors were a privileged class who were dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli, and dressed to look like eagles. Adjoining this palace is the temple for these warriors—also known as the Red Temple. This temple shows clear Teotihuacan influence in its paintings (mostly in red) and the design of its altar. Almost all the interior walls of the House of the Eagles are decorated with beautiful paintings and contain long benches, which are also painted. These benches are composed of two panels. The upper one is a frieze with undulating serpents in bas-relief. The lower panel shows processions of armed warriors converging on a zacatapayolli, a grass ball into which the Mexica stuck bloody lancets during the ritual of autosacrifice. This palace specifically imitates much of the style of the Burnt Palace, located in the ruins of Tula. A number of important artifacts have been found in this area, the most important of which are two nearly identical large ceramic sculptures of Mictlantecuhtl, the god of death. Despite being found in fragile pieces, they were both reconstructed and are on display at the on-site museum.

Another conjoining area was dedicated to the Ocelot Warriors. Their temple, dedicated to the god Tezcatlipoca, lies under the current Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público to the south of the Templo Mayor.

The Calmecac was a residence hall for priests and a school for future priests, administrators and politicians, where they studied theology, literature, history and astronomy. Its exact location is on one side of what is now Donceles Street. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl was located to the west of the Templo Mayor. It is said that during the equinox, the sun rose between the shrines dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc and shone directly on this temple. Due to the god’s serpentine nature, the temple had a circular base instead of a rectangular one.

The ball field, called the tlachtli or teutlachtli, was similar to many sacred ball fields in Mesoamerica. Games were played barefoot, and players used their hips to move a heavy ball to stone rings. The field was located west of the Templo Mayor, near the twin staircases and oriented east-west. Next to this ball field was the “huey tzompanti” where the skulls of sacrifice victims were kept after being covered in stucco and decorated.

The Temple of the Sun was located west of the Templo Mayor also and its remains lie under the Metropolitan Cathedral. The project to shore up the cathedral at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st brought to light a number of artifacts.

Most of the objects found in the Templo Mayor were offerings. Although many are of Mexica design, there are also abundant items from other peoples, brought in as tribute or through trade. Sculptures, flint knives, vessels, beads and other sumptuary ornaments—as well as minerals, plants and animals of all types, and the remains of human sacrifice—were among the items deposited in offerings. All of these fulfilled a specific function within the offering, depending on the symbolism of each object. In excavations at the Templo Mayor, different types of offerings have been found and have been grouped by researchers in terms of Time (the period in which the offering was deposited); Space (the location of the offering within the structure); Container (type and dimensions of the receptacle containing the objects); internal distribution (placement of objects within the offering) and value of the items. The offerings were usually contained in cavities, in stone urns, and in boxes made of slabs. These are found under floors; in platforms, architectural bodies, stairways and in temples. These offerings were placed accompanied by complex rituals following set temporal, spatial and symbolic patterns, depending on the intention of the offering.

The oldest Mexica objects, located in the second temple, are two urns which contain the remains of incinerated bones; one of the urns was made of obsidian and the other of alabaster. A small silver mask and a gold bell were found inside one urn, and second gold bell and two green stone beads were placed in the other.

Images of the gods Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli, together with Tlaloc, presided over most of the offerings found in the Templo Mayor. Representing fire and water respectively, this pair of deities probably symbolized the concept of “burning water,” a metaphor for warfare.

Another theme exhibited in this hall is autosacrifice, a ritual that was conducted in private as a personal act of communication with the gods. Widespread throughout the entire population, this practice was performed by perforating certain fleshy parts of the body—such as the earlobes, lips, tongue, chest, calves, et cetera—with obsidian blades, agave needles or bone perforators. Once the implement was covered with blood, it was inserted in straw balls called Zacatapayoli. The entirety was probably placed in ceremonial boxes—tepetlacalli—as an offering to the gods. Objects associated with human sacrifice are the “face blades” or knives decorated with eyes and teeth, as well as skull masks. Other ceremonial items include musical instruments, jewelry, and braziers for the burning of copal.

The museum of the Templo Mayor was built in 1987 to house the Templo Mayor Project and its finds—a project which continues work to this day. In 1991, the Urban Archeology Program was incorporated as part of the Templo Mayor Project whose mission is to excavate the oldest area of the city, around the main plaza. The museum building was built by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, who envisioned a discreet structure that would blend in with the colonial surroundings. The museum has four floors, three of which are for permanent exhibitions and the fourth houses offices for the director, museum administration and research staff. Other departments are located in the basement, where there is also an auditorium.

The museum has eight main exhibition halls, called “salas”, each dedicated to a different theme. Room 1 is dedicated to the goddesses Coatlicue and Coyalxauhqui, mother and sister to Huitzlipochtli, respectively. Here are displayed the first finds associated with the temple, from the first tentative finds in the 19th century to the discovery of the huge stone disk of Coyolxauhqui, which initiated the Templo Mayor Project.

Room 2 is dedicated to the concepts of ritual and sacrifice in Tenochtitlan. This room contains urns where dignitaries where interred, funerary offerings, as well as objects associated with self and human sacrifice—such as musical instruments, knives and skulls.

Room 3 demonstrates the economics of the Aztec empire in the form of tribute and trade, with examples of finished products and raw materials from many parts of Mesoamerica. Sala 4 is dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli. His shrine at the temple was the most important and largest. This room contains various images of him as well as offerings. Also located here are the two large ceramic statues of the god Mictlantecuhtli which were found in the House of the Eagle Warriors who were dedicated to Huitzilopochtli.

Room 5 is dedicated to Tlaloc, the other principal deity of the Aztecs and one of the oldest in Mesoamerica. This room contains various images of the god usually worked in green or volcanic stone or in ceramic. The most prized work is a large pot with the god’s face in high relief that still preserves much of the original blue paint. Room 6 is dedicated to the flora and fauna of Mesoamerica at this time, as most contained divine aspects for the Aztecs. Also many of the offerings found at the Templo Mayor were or were made from various plants and animals. Related to Room 6, Room 7 contains exhibits of the agricultural technology of the time, especially in the growing of corn and the construction of chinampas, the so-called “floating gardens”. The last room is Room 8, which is dedicated to the archeology and history of the site.

The archeological site lies just to the northeast of the Zocalo, or main plaza of Mexico City, just behind the Cathedral, in the block between Seminario and Justo Sierra streets (Zocalo metro station, Line 2).

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You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

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