Central Area (Centro Histórico)
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
We got out of the hotel early and took an Uber car over to the central area, Centro Historico, where we spent most of the day.
Here is the map showing the central area of the city. Enlarge for detail.
After walking around the area, we visited the museum, built in 1987; here are some of the artifacts.
The Zócolo (between the Templo Mayor and our next stop, the Palacio Nacional) was somewhat disappointing. It is enormous, though!
Our next stop was at the very large Palacio Nacional, a section in a large government building. There are several murals painted by Diego Rivera in the building. One is quite large and represents the history of Mexico. Here is the painter in one part of the mural; he is holding a copy of El Capital by Karl Marx.
Frida Kahlo, one of Rivera’s wives, is also in the mural.
A part of the History of Mexico mural, looking up the central staircase.
After walking around and looking at other murals and the cactus garden in the interior courtyard, we walked back over to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. It turns out it is the biggest cathedral in the western hemisphere. Here is a view of it from the Templo Mayor.
Our next stop was at San Ildefonso College, which has a museum of murals by famous artists such as José Orozco and Diego Rivera.
Next, we looked in briefly at the La Esañanza Church, which has an elaborate gold altar.
The church did not have a lot of visitors when we were there.
We next visited the Ministry of Education which had even more murals, and some more colonial buildings in the area before heading to the pedestrian shopping street, Francisco Madero.
We then walked around the streets in the Centro Historico. We liked this pedestrian street, the Avenida Madero, which reminded us of Spain.
After lunch at a gastro pub, our next stop was at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a beautiful building.
Yes, Rivera has some work in the museum’s nearby related structure (Museo Mural Diego Rivera). This is a part of a large panel about the history of Mexico from Cortez to the 1920s. He managed to work in Frida Kahlo!
We also visited an exhibit on the revolution.
The building’s art deco details are beautiful.
We then returned to Polanco and walked around the neighborhood by our hotel.
We visited a number of museums in the central part of the city. We had as a full day of touring.
Tomorrow—The huge National Museum of Anthropology and the Museo de Arte Popular.
The first stop was the Templo Mayor, a fantastic place. Construction of the monument began about 1325. The Spanish took the structure apart and covered up much of it in 1521 to make way for the nearby Cathedral.
It turns out that much of the area was only “discovered” after 1978, when the national government authorized work to clear the area of structures. Here are three photos of artifacts in the area.The third is an Aztec chacmool.
