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Palacio Nacional Review

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Palacio Nacional

Address: East side of the Zócalo, Col. Centro, Mexico City

Category: Government Buildings
Location: Centro Histórico and Alameda Central

Write a review | Avg. member rating: 4.4/5

Fodor's Review:

The grand national palace was initiated by Cortés on the site of Moctezuma's home and remodeled by the viceroys. Its current form dates from 1693, although a third floor was added in 1926. Now the seat of government, it has always served as a public-function site. In fact, during colonial times, the first bullfight in New Spain took place in the inner courtyard.

Diego Rivera's sweeping, epic murals on the second floor of the main courtyard exert a mesmeric pull. For more than 16 years (1929-45), Rivera and his assistants mounted scaffolds day and night, perfecting techniques adapted from Renaissance Italian fresco painting. The result, nearly 1,200 square feet of vividly painted wall space, is grandiosely entitled Epica del Pueblo Mexicano en su Lucha por la Libertad y la Independencia (Epic of the Mexican People in Their Struggle for Freedom and Independence). The paintings represent two millennia of Mexican history, filtered through Rivera's imagination. He painted pre-Hispanic times in innocent, almost sugary scenes of Tenochtitlán. Only a few vignettes—a man offering a human arm for sale, and the carnage of warriors—acknowledge the darker aspects of ancient life. As you walk around, you'll pass images of the savagery of the conquest and the hypocrisy of the Spanish priests, the noble independence movement, and the bloody revolution. Marx appears amid scenes of class struggle, toiling workers, industrialization (which Rivera idealized), bourgeois decadence, and nuclear holocaust. These are among Rivera's finest works—as well as the most accessible and probably most visited. The palace also houses a minor museum that focuses on 19th-century president Benito Juárez and the Mexican Congress.

The liberty bell rung by Padre Hidalgo to proclaim independence in 1810 hangs high on the central facade. It chimes every eve of September 16, while from the balcony the president repeats the historic shout of independence to throngs of chilangos (Mexico City residents) below.

Cost: Free; you'll be asked to leave an ID at the front desk
Open: Mon.-Sat. 9-6, Sun. 9-2
Metro: Zócalo

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Member Reviews and Ratings

Reviewed by tim_cox from Massachusetts on 2/9/08
A "must see" if you have any interest in Diego Rivera's art. They are stunning, powerful, beautiful. We spent 2 hours marveling at them; you could certainly spend less but we would have spent more if we'd had the time. Admission is free. We had to show (but not leave) passports to enter (January 2008); we entered through a metal detector and had bags searched entering and leaving, but it was a pretty cursory search. The guards were polite and unintimidating. A vendor sells a 10-postcard pack and descriptive brochure for about US$5. It's not the best-written brochure but it's a reasonable overview, the text is in several languages, and the postcards are pretty good images of the murals.