150 Best Sights in Mexico City, Mexico

About 20 esteemed contemporary artists show at this spacious, airy gallery across the street from both Casa Estudio Luis Barragán. Like its neighbor, the gallery is a prominent work of Mexican modernist design, having been built in 1948 by functionalist architect Enrique del Moral, who resided here for many years. Both solo and group shows usually run for a couple of months, and the openings always draw a cadre of big names in the art world. The adjoining gardens, with benches and tables, are a relaxing spot to take a break from art viewing.

The facade of this refurbished building from the 1950s has a colonial air, but inside is one of the most contemporary art museums in town, with a mission to explore how art intersects with science and technology. There is a space for contemporary and often experimental art, a display area for video and photographs, and a room where artists whose works are not displayed in other museums and galleries can exhibit. These are not necessarily young artists, but those who have yet to become truly established.

This art gallery has spent years mounting group and solo shows from a diverse range of artists, both local and international. 

An essential stop on any gallery stroll through Roma, MAIA occupies part of one of the more striking mansions on elegant Calle Colima, the Porfirian-era Casa Basalta, with exhibition spaces connected by a long, columned veranda. The gallery represents a mix of up-and-coming and more established contemporary talents, and the shows here make great use of the dramatic architecture. Casa Basalta also houses a handful of other businesses, including a few small restaurants, an ice cream shop, and a couple of clothing boutiques. 

Built in 1934 as a cultural complex and prototype for modern marketplaces around Mexico, the Mercado Abelardo L. Rodriguez is largely an ordinary neighborhood mercado today, with butchers, vegetable vendors, and juice stalls. The market's real claim to fame is its murals, painted by disciples of the greats in the arched entrances.

Although open only on weekends, this palatial former home of Emilio "El Indio Fernández"—one of the greatest directors in Mexican cinematic history—is well worth a visit any time of year, but is especially a must-see during the weeks around Día de Muertos, when its rooms and gardens abound with remarkably extensive and colorful ofrendas (altars). The fortresslike home, built in the 1940s of volcanic rock with a design influenced by prehistoric temples, is filled with movie memorabilia, and vendors sell crafts, food, and other goods in the house's tree-shaded front courtyard. There are also theatrical presentations and other events throughout the year, some with additional admission charges. 

The building that now houses the Museum of the Photography Archive is one of the oldest on the Zócalo, first built in the late 16th century as part of the property of the Nava Chávez family, founded by the canon priest Pedro Nava Chávez and passed down through his niece, Catalina de Nava. Decorated in a neo-Moorish style popular in Mexico's colonial period, the house became famous in 2006 when archaeologists uncovered a monolithic statue of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli under its floors. That same year, the building opened its doors for regular photography exhibitions, often focused on the work of Mexico's finest photojournalists.

This cube-shape art museum built in 1972 by businessman and collector Dr. Alvar Carrillo Gil is one of the top venues in the city for viewing vanguard art. Rotating exhibits showcase contemporary art in a wide range of media, often by young, emerging artists. At times you can also view portions of the immense permanent collection, which consists of more than 2,000 works, about 1,400 of which Gil collected himself. These include more than 150 murals and paintings by José Clemente Orozco, 45 works by David Alfaro Siqueiros, and important pieces by Rivera, Klee, and Picasso.

The Modern Art Museum's permanent collection has many important examples of 20th-century Mexican art, including works by Mexican school painters like Frida Kahlo—her Las dos Fridas is possibly the most famous work in the collection—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Olga Costa. There are also pieces by surrealists Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.

Operated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the city's geology museum features multiple mammoth skulls and an entire hadrosaurid dinosaur fossil. Gems and minerals from around the world, but mostly Mexico, adorn impeccably preserved antique glass and wooden showcases. The large and expertly polished pieces of selenite from northern Mexico are particularly impressive, as is the architecture of the building itself, built in 1906. The beautiful colonial building enjoys a privileged location overlooking Santa María la Ribera’s central park.

In this small, slightly quirky museum and aquarium inside Parque Ecológico Presa Tarango, in a hilly west-side neighborhood between Santa Fe and San Ángel, you can learn about one of Mexico's strangest and seemingly unlikely creatures, the axolotl. This small (averaging about 10 inches in length) and entirely aquatic relative of a tiger salamander once proliferated in the lakes beneath Mexico City, but rampant urbanization has almost entirely destroyed their natural habitats and axolotls have become nearly extinct in the wild. Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco, on the southeast side of the city, are the only places in the world where these underwater animals are still found. In the three geodesic-dome buildings and surrounding gardens that make up this museum, you can view exhibits about these unique amphibians and their conservation, and view them up-close in aquariums. The easiest way to get here is by Uber---it's a 15- to 20-minute ride from Santa Fe and San Ángel (or its nearest Metro stop, Barranca del Muerto).

First built as a jewelry store in 1892, the belle epoque--style Esmeralda Building has had various uses over the years, including as a government office, a bank, a disco called La Opulencia, and, since 2006, as the Museo de Estanquillo, housing the eclectic collection of the great 20th-century journalist, Carlos Monsiváis. The museum takes its name from the term used through the 19th and early 20th centuries for small neighborhood convenience shops, which stocked virtually everything a person could need. It's an appropriate name for a museum dedicated to rotating exhibitions drawn from a total collection of 20,000 individual pieces. Shows might range from cartoons, stamps, and etchings to photos, lithographs, drawings, and paintings from some of the greatest names in Mexican art; the collection is as diverse and democratic as Monsiváis was in his writing. The rooftop café and bookstore offer a stunning view over the domes of San Felipe Neri la Profesa and the hubbub of Madero below.

This offbeat gem of a museum located in a handsome 19th-century former home on the west side of historic Tlalpan's Plaza de la Constitución contains an unexpectedly fascinating collection of antique clocks as well as old gramophones, movie cameras, phones, typewriters, jukeboxes, and even relatively modern gadgets from the 2000s, like old flip phones and adding machines. The owner is quite happy to show visitors around, but he does keep fairly irregular hours, so always call ahead.

This contemporary gallery space encourages the appreciation of diverse artistic languages, including modern art that fits within the building's unique parameters. Operated in alliance with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, it features national and international artists as well as performances and gatherings from cabaret to pop-up dinners and tastings.

Housed in the 16th-century Hospital de San Juan de Dios, this museum houses thousands of works collected by Franz Mayer, who emigrated from his native Germany to Mexico in 1905 and went on to become an important stockbroker. The permanent collection includes 16th- and 17th-century antiques, such as wooden chests inlaid with ivory, tortoiseshell, and ebony; tapestries, paintings, and lacquerware; rococo clocks, glassware, and architectural ornamentation; and an unusually large assortment of Talavera (blue-and-white) ceramics. The museum also has more than 700 editions of Cervantes's Don Quixote. The old hospital building is faithfully restored, with pieces of the original frescoes peeking through. You can also enjoy a great number of temporary exhibitions, often focused on modern applied arts. 

Found within the refurbished Santa Inés convent, this inviting museum displays international modern art as well as work by Mexico's enfant terrible, José Luis Cuevas, one of the country's best-known modern artists (1934–2017). The highlight is the sensational La Giganta (The Giantess), Cuevas's eight-ton bronze sculpture in the central patio. It represents male-female duality and pays homage to Charles Baudelaire's poem of the same name. Up-and-coming Latin American artists appear in temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

Founded by an heir to the Jumex juice fortune, this contemporary art museum is located just across the way from the Museo Soumaya, and though the subdued travertine building that houses it is not as eye-popping as Carlos Slim's shiny silver cloud next door, the exhibition design of the Jumex is arguably superior. Shows draw from the museum's 2,700-strong collection, which includes boldfaced names like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol, as well as temporary exhibitions of work by international contemporary artists. There's also an on-site café and store.

This museum with a big gift shop (or shop with a small museum) and café features small expositions of contemporary Mexican design. The goals of the museum are to provide a space for design, to assist local designers, and to offer a location in which designers can make money from their craft. Exhibitions, open only through guided tours in Spanish every half hour from 10 am to 8 pm, are shown in a back room made of brick, where you can see the old archways from Cortés's patio, which was built, in part, on top of Moctezuma's pyramid. The shop is open to the public.

The collections of the National Art Museum occupy one of Centro's most impressive neoclassical buildings, designed by Italian architect Silvio Contri in the early 20th century. The works in the permanent collection, organized in galleries around a gracious open patio and grand central staircase, span nearly every school of Mexican art, with a concentration on work produced between 1810 and 1950. José María Velasco's Vista del Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel (View of the Valley of Mexico from the Hill of Santa Isabel) is on display; the collection also includes artists such as Diego Rivera and Ramón Cano Manilla. Keep an eye out for temporary exhibitions of works by Mexican and international masters. 

A huge arbol de la vida (tree of life) sculpture stands in the courtyard of this museum devoted to popular culture and regional arts and crafts and located just a few steps from Plaza Hidalgo. Its exhibits rotate (there's no permanent collection), and the variety of events include children's workshops, traditional music concerts, and dance performances. On certain weekends the courtyard becomes a small crafts-and-sweets market with some worthwhile exhibitors from throughout the country displaying their wares. The museum shop stocks an exceptional selection of books on everything from Mexican art to anthropology as well as high-quality crafts.

Founded in 1964 by the late artist Alfredo Guati Rojo, this museum devoted entirely to watercolor painting makes for an enjoyable detour if you're strolling along nearby Avenida Francisco Sosa. Admission is free, and the two-story white house that contains the galleries is surrounded by pretty flower gardens and hedges, which you can admire from the terrace of the small museum café. The art includes dozens of works by Rojo and his wife, plus galleries devoted to watercolor paintings by Mexican, international, and contemporary artists; a separate building across the garden stages temporary exhibits.

Established in 1999 within the walls of a dramatic church that was part of a 17th-century monastery (most of which is now occupied by a military installation across the street), this free and rather underrated museum tells the story of Mexico's history, its formation into a republic, and even aspects of its demographics and economics (there are hydrography and mining maps, for example) through a series of maps and even more ancient codices that date back to the early days of New Spain. These documents cover the walls of the entire domed structure, and in the transept there's also a display of map-making equipment, from antique sextants to clunky GPS devices from the early 2000s. Signage is in both Spanish and English. Ironically (or perhaps as some sort of cosmic joke), using the map on your phone to get to this museum on the western edge of Tacabuya—just a 15-minute walk from Condesa—can be a bit tricky. The museum sits in the middle of a fenced-in island of sorts, surrounded by busy two-lane roads on all sides; to get in, go to the intersection of Anillo Periférico and Avenida Observatorio and go through the unmarked pedestrian underpass, which leads to a small plaza in front of the museum.

The San Carlos collection occupies a handsome, 18th-century palace built by Manuel de Tolsá in the final years of Mexico's colonial period. Centered on an unusual oval courtyard, the neoclassical mansion became a cigarette factory in the mid-19th century, lending the colonia its current name of Tabacalera. In 1968, the building became a museum, housing a collection of some 2,000 works of European art, primarily paintings and prints, with a few examples of sculpture and decorative arts ranging in styles.

Built between 1779 and 1785, this baroque palace—note the imposing door and its carved-stone trimmings—was originally a residence for the Counts of Moncada and the Marquises of Jaral de Berrio, a title created only five years earlier. The palace takes its name from Agustín de Iturbide, who stayed here for a short time in 1822. One of the military heroes of the independence movement, the misguided Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor of Mexico once the country finally achieved freedom from Spain. He was staying in the palace when he became emperor, a position he held for less than a year before being driven into exile. In the two centuries since, the house has been a school, a café, and a hotel. In 1964, the Palacio Iturbide became the property of Banamex, which oversaw its restoration and eventually reopened the space in 2004 as a cultural center, showing major exhibitions in the grand central atrium.

The Plaza Loreto branch of the famed art museum in Polanco contains several huge exhibition rooms set inside the upper level of a colonial-era warehouse building that now houses shops and restaurants. It's a bit south of the heart of San Ángel, and not necessarily worth a trip all on its own, but admission is free and the exhibits are quite interesting and include an extensive look at the life and work of renowned Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (of Estadio Azteca and Museo Nacional de Antropologia fame). There are also wonderful collections of Venetian paintings, Flemish tapestries, and early Mexican photography.

Part of Carlos Slim's growing collection of cultural holdings that operate—always with free admission—under the aegis of Soumaya Museum, this classic late 19th-century Porfirian mansion was formerly owned by the late historian and art collector Guillermo Tovar de Teresa. The grand, if imposingly formal, home is filled with priceless antiques and artwork, including an important painting of Archangel San Rafael by noted religious painter Miguel Cabrera, fine porcelain and glassworks from both Europe and Spanish Colonial Mexico, and Tovar de Teresa's huge library of historic books. Walking amid the Oriental rugs, gilt-framed mirrors and paintings, and sweeping drapes give a nice sense of what it might have felt like to live in one of the city's grandest homes, but the real treat here is visiting the romantic, cloistered garden, with its huge ferns, flowering plants, and curving pathways—it's a peaceful little green treasure in the heart of a bustling neighborhood.

Works—mostly paintings with a contemporary edge—by Mexican artists pack this large gallery. Downstairs, the main gallery exhibits a different artist each month while an upstairs gallery holds the permanent collection.