Famous Landmarks in Mexico City
This high-altitude capital rose in Baroque stone over a razed Aztec city.
Nearly every landmark here sits within a few blocks of the Zócalo, the vast square laid out over the former Aztec sacred precinct after the conquest of Tenochtitlan. The cathedral and the National Palace both rise on that reused ground, built in stone across the colonial centuries and, in the palace's case, partly from masonry salvaged from an earlier Aztec ruler's residence. Their Baroque bulk sets the tone for the historic center. A few streets further west, near the Alameda Central park, the Palacio de Bellas Artes breaks from that pattern entirely: a 20th-century performance hall whose Art Nouveau shell and Art Deco interior belong to an independence-centennial building campaign interrupted by revolution.
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
1573–1813 · Claudio de Arciniega
Twin bell towers rise above a wide Baroque facade that faces a vast paved square from its northern side, with the excavated stone platforms of a former Aztec temple precinct exposed just beside the building.
The cathedral church of the Catholic Archdiocese stands on the site of the Aztec sacred precinct, built around an earlier church raised soon after the conquest until that first structure was entirely replaced. Claudio de Arciniega planned the design, drawing on Gothic cathedrals in Spain, and construction continued under Juan Gómez de Trasmonte, José Eduardo de Herrera, José Damián Ortiz de Castro and Manuel Tolsá as it stretched across nearly 250 years.
- It stands directly on top of the former Aztec sacred precinct, beside the excavated Templo Mayor.
- Building it took under 250 years, long enough that virtually every architect, painter and sculptor working in the viceroyalty had a hand in it at some point.
- It was built around an earlier church and eventually replaced that structure entirely rather than starting from a cleared site.
Photo: ProtoplasmaKid (CC BY-SA 4.0)
National Palace
1693
A long, low Baroque facade in dark stone runs the length of one side of a vast central square; inside, much of the fabric was raised from masonry taken from the razed palace that stood on the same spot.
The National Palace is the seat of Mexico's federal executive and, since 2018, the official residence of the president. The site has held a palace for the country's rulers since the Aztec Empire, and much of the present building's material comes from the original residence of the 16th-century leader Moctezuma II. The standing Baroque palace dates to a 1693 rebuilding, distinct from that earlier Aztec-era structure it replaced and reused.
- Much of its building material was salvaged from the palace of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, which stood on the same site.
- It has served as an official presidential residence only since 2018, despite centuries as a seat of government.
Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Palacio de Bellas Artes
1934 · Federico Ernesto Mariscal Piña
An Art Nouveau and Neoclassical exterior encloses an Art Deco interior, a combination that comes from a single building finished in two widely separated phases; it stands near a central park and holds murals by major muralists inside.
Built to replace the old National Theater as an opulent venue for the centennial of Mexican independence, the building was designed and begun by the Italian architect Adamo Boari in 1904. Soft subsoil and the political upheaval before and during the Mexican Revolution stopped work by 1913. Federico Mariscal resumed construction in 1932 and completed it in 1934, giving the Art Nouveau and Neoclassical exterior an Art Deco interior, filled with murals by Diego Rivera, Siqueiros and others.
- Construction stopped for nearly two decades, from 1913 to 1932, because of the Mexican Revolution and problems with the soft subsoil.
- The exterior and interior were designed in different styles because two different architects, working decades apart, completed each part.
Photo: Octavio Alonso Maya Castro (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Alameda Central
1592
Straight paved paths radiate outward from a central bandstand and a set of classical fountains inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, framed by mature shade trees and nineteenth-century statues, including a large monument to Beethoven donated by the city's German community.
Alameda Central is a public park in downtown Mexico City, created in 1592 by order of the viceroy on the site of a former Aztec marketplace. Its name comes from the álamo, or poplar, trees planted there, and the grounds later absorbed an adjoining plaza once used by the Inquisition for public burnings. Gas lamps installed in 1868 were replaced by electric lighting in 1892, and the park underwent a full rehabilitation in 2012, with new paving, planting and lighting. Fountains and statues from the nineteenth century remain throughout the grounds.
- In 1846, President Santa Anna ordered the park's fountains filled with alcohol to celebrate his triumphant return to the city.
- Part of the grounds began as El Quemadero, a plaza where the Inquisition publicly burned condemned people at the stake, before it was absorbed into the park in 1770.
- In 1791, a nobleman fenced the park with wood to reserve it for the nobility; by 1821 it was instead the site of the city's popular independence celebrations.
Photo: Gobierno CDMX (CC0)
History
After the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, colonial builders raised the new city's principal structures directly on and from the remains of the Aztec capital: the cathedral rose over the old sacred precinct, and the palace of the viceroys reused stone from the razed residence of Moctezuma II. The cathedral alone took shape over roughly 250 years, from 1573 to 1813, drawing in turn on Gothic, Baroque, Churrigueresque and Neoclassical fashion as generations of architects succeeded one another. Centuries later, the same historic center gained a very different landmark: construction on the Palacio de Bellas Artes began in 1904 to mark the centennial of independence, stalled during the Mexican Revolution, and resumed only in 1932, finishing in 1934.