843 Best Sights in Mexico

For an introduction to copper work, visit the Museo del Cobre before exploring the more than 50 little shops and factories in town.

Across from a small plaza with statues of Bishop Vasco de Quiroga and Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, this history museum is in a stately mansion that was previously home to the wife of Agustín de Iturbide, Mexico's only native-born emperor. Among the 18th-century home's highlights is a complete Morelia pharmacy from 1868. On display are regional archaeological artifacts and exhibits about mining and indigenous culture.

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.

A five-minute drive north of the Zócalo in an otherwise nondescript industrial area, you'll find this excellent museum inside the Zona Histórica de los Fuertes, an expansive park that commemorates the city's colorful military history, including the famous Battle of Puebla between France and the nascent Mexican Republic, in which the latter prevailed against what was considered to be far more formidable force. Unless you're a big history buff, you may not be familiar with this battle, but you probably recognize the date: May 5, 1862, or Cinco de Mayo, which though a popular holiday outside Mexico is a far less important date than that of Mexican Independence Day, on September 16. Nevertheless, the museum here inside this well-preserved fort is one of the more interesting, and underrated, ones in the city; it's filled with exhibits and artifacts that tell the story of this battle. Across the park, Museo del Fuerte de Guadalupe is interesting as well but not quite as comprehensive. It's worth a look, though, if you have time.

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.

Rising high above Tepoztlán's low skyline is this buttressed former convent. It dates from the mid-16th century and has a facade adorned with icons dating from before the introduction of Christianity. Many of the walls, especially on the ground floor, have fragments of old paintings in earthen tones on the walls and decorating the arches. It is worth a visit just to see the building, which also houses temporary exhibits and a bookstore with a good selection of literature and music.

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.

Located next to the cathedral, the building that houses this museum has served in the past as a seminary, an art school, and even a military barracks. It now showcases the works of contemporary Yucatecan artists and hosts a variety of temporary exhibits featuring leading Mexican and international contemporary artists. It's free to visit; just sign the guestbook.

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. 

The former home of renowned mid-20th-century silversmith William G. Spratling houses some 140 of the artist's original designs plus a vast collection of both original and reproduction pre-Columbian artifacts. Exhibits also explain the working of colonial mines.

Across the river from downtown is the grandly named Museo Histórico de la Amistad México–Cuba. This one-room house, bare save for black-and-white photos and a few threadbare uniforms, is where Fidel Castro lived for a time while planning the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. To get here from the dock, walk three blocks south to Calle Obregón, then head west for several blocks until you reach the end of the street.

In an impressive set of buildings that once housed navy officers, the Naval History Museum tells how the country's history was made on the high seas. Veracruz has been dubbed the city that was cuatro veces heróica, or "four times heroic," for its part in defending the country against two attacks by the French and two by the Americans. The museum tells of those wars, as well as the life of revolutionary war hero Venustiano Carranza. Explanatory materials are in Spanish only.

During his imprisonment in a Spanish concentration camp in the 1930s, Spanish writer and journalist Eulalio Ferrer was so uplifted by Miguel de Cervantes's classic novel that he developed a lifelong passion for Don Quixote. This restored 19th-century home is a museum displaying Ferrer's collection of more than 600 pieces of art, all dedicated to the man of La Mancha. Gathered after he fled Fascist Spain for Mexico, the star-studded collection includes works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Jose Luis Cuevas, and Alfredo Zalce. The museum sponsors weekly free and inexpensive events, currently art films on Monday (free) and live music Thursday (MX$50), among other cultural events, usually at 8 pm. A bookshop and café front the museum.

The Museo Ik'al Ojov, on the street behind the church, is in a typical home and displays Zinacantán costumes through the ages.

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.

Jade was prized as a symbol of wealth and power by Olmec, Teotihuacán, Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec nobility, and this museum shows jade pieces from different Mesoamerican cultures. The most impressive piece is a reproduction of the sarcophagus lid from Pakal's tomb, at Palenque. If asking for directions, remember that J in Spanish carries an H sound, making the word “jade” pronounced “HAH-day.“

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.

Occupying a train station inaugurated by President Juárez in 1869, the National Railway Museum extends a nostalgic treat. Period engines sit on the now-unused platforms, and several vintage cars—including a caboose—can be explored.

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.

No visit to the lovely Spanish colonial city of Tepotzotlán is complete without checking out the National Museum of Viceroyalty of New Spain, which contains an exceptional collection of art, furniture, and other items from primarily the 1500s through the mid-1800s. The museum is set inside the former College of San Francisco Javier, which was built by Jesuit priests in 1580. The ornate baroque architecture—in particular the gilded interiors—of the museum and its surrounding complex of colonial buildings is reason alone to visit. But the decorative arts inside, including stunning carved cedar retablos covered in 23-karat gold-leaf, as well as fascinating exhibits that detail the 300 years of Mexico's New Spain period, are also tremendously impressive. The museum sits right on Centro Tepotzotlán's main Plaza de la Cruz, which can sometimes be packed with crowds. For some quiet and a breath of fresh air, head out to explore the tree-shaded lawns and gardens in the back, which you can access from the lower floor in the rear of the museum.

This small museum managed by the Mexican Navy has a permanent exhibition about Mexico's relationship with the sea, from the Spanish conquest through modern times. You'll see interesting pieces of antique artillery and silver jewelry, and learn about the history of the Nao de China, a Spanish sailboat that used to navigate the Pacific all the way to China and the Philippines in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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.

Originally a Jesuit seminary and later a Dominican monastery, this building was used as a jail in the 18th century, and is now a museum that exhibits the work of Zacatecas artist and sculptor Pedro Coronel. Also on display is his extensive collection of works by Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Braque, and Chagall, among others, as well as art from Africa, China, Japan, India, Tibet, Greece, and Egypt.