39 Best Sights in Mexico

A historic mansion just south of Valladolid's central square contains Mexico's largest private collection of folk art. Rooms around the gracious courtyard contain some 3,000 pieces, with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) figures being a specialty. The selection is impressive, but even without it, the house would be worth touring. This hacienda-style building dates from the early 17th century, and the restoration was led by the same architect who designed Mérida's ultramodern Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (don't worry—the results here preserved its colonial elegance). Casa de los Venados opens to the public each morning for a 90-minute bilingual tour. Just show up; no reservations are needed. The suggested donation of MX$100 is a bargain, and all proceeds help fund local health-care projects.

Financed by Bishop Juan Ruiz de Cabañas and constructed by Spanish architect-sculptor Manuel Tolsá, this neoclassical-style cultural center, also known as Hospicio Cabañas, was originally opened in 1810 as a shelter for widows, orphans, and the elderly. The Instituto's 106 rooms and 23 flower-filled patios now house art exhibitions. The main chapel displays murals by José Clemente Orozco, including The Man of Fire, his masterpiece. In all, there are 57 murals by Orozco, plus many of his smaller paintings, cartoons, and drawings. Kids can marvel at the murals, some which appear as optical illusions, and investigate the labyrinthine compound. The center was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

This small museum compound is where Diego and Frida lived, painted, loved, and fought (they divorced briefly in 1939) from 1934 to 1940; its three angular red and blue buildings with large multipane windows and a cacti-filled courtyard is stylistically the antithesis of the traditional Spanish Colonial Museo Frida Kahlo just a few miles away in Coyoacán. In the red main house, some of Rivera's final paintings rest on easels, and you can see his denim jacket and shoes on a wicker chair with his modest little bed and side table made up as though the artist might return at any moment. In the building's studio you can view giant papier-mâché sculptures (some of the pre-Hispanic pottery that Rivera collected) and other curious figurines and colorful folk art. The buildings' unusual, and at the time highly avant garde, designs are a big part of what makes a visit here so interesting. Architect Juan O'Gorman, who devised these buildings in 1931, was a close friend of Rivera's and lived on the property in a third structure that today, like the blue house that Frida resided in, contains rotating exhibits.

Interesting architectural features include several curving concrete exterior and interior staircases, and a bridge that connects the rooftops of Diego's and Frida's homes—a convenient passageway that allowed the two simultaneous access to and space from one another.

Set in an art deco former fire station (the building itself is reason enough for a visit), the Muso de Arte Popular maintains a gloriously diverse collection of folk art from all of Mexico's 32 states. Expect to find elaborately painted pottery from Guerrero, trees of life fashioned from clay in Mexico State, textiles woven in Oaxaca and Chiapas, and carved masks from Michoacán. Don't forget to stop at the on-site store on your way out for an exceptional collection of crafts sourced directly from communities around the country, by far the highest quality products you'll find in the city.

The museum is named after Pantaleon Panduro, who's considered the father of modern ceramics in Jalisco. On display are prizewinning pieces from the museum's annual ceramics competition, held every June. It's possibly the best representation of modern Mexican pottery under a single roof. You can request an English-speaking guide.

A devoted collector of pre-Hispanic art, Diego Rivera built his own museum to house the more than 45,000 artifacts he collected over his lifetime—which, sadly, came to an end several years before this impressive volcanic-rock building with a design inspired by ancient Mexican pyramids was completed in 1964. The third-floor studio, with its massive wall of windows, displays sketches for some of Rivera's most celebrated murals. Be sure to make your way to the rooftop, which affords sweeping city and mountain views, especially if it's a clear day; look out for the museum's small adjacent nature reserve, which you can also walk through. During the weeks surrounding Día de Muertos, you can view a remarkable altar in honor of Rivera himself. Although located in the larger delegación of Coyoacán, the museum is in the neighborhood of San Pablo Tepetlapa, about a 15-minute Uber ride south of Coyoacán's historic center; it's also a short walk from the Nezahualpilli light rail station.

In Xochimilco, on the outskirts of the city, you'll find this superb collection of paintings by Frida Kahlo and the largest private collection of works by Diego Rivera. The museum was established by Dolores Olmedo, Rivera's lifelong model, patron, and onetime mistress. The lavish display of nearly 150 pieces from his cubist, postcubist, and mural periods hangs in a magnificent 17th-century hacienda with lovely gardens. Kahlo's paintings are in a separate, adjacent hall; the museum sometimes lends these for traveling exhibitions, so check ahead to ensure they're here if this is the main reason you're visiting. Concerts and entertainment for children are presented on many weekends, while gaggles of geese and strutting peacocks amble about the grounds, adding to the clamor. There is a lovely small café in a glassed-in gazebo, and a variety of compelling rotating exhibits are held in other buildings around the property. During the month of October, the museum presents one of the better Día de Muertos displays in the city. You can reach the museum by taking the metro to Tasqueña station, and then catching the light-rail to La Noria (not Xochimilco), which is a five- to seven-minute walk away. By car, it's about a 40- to 50-minute drive from El Centro, but many visitors combine a stop here with boating on the canals in Xochimilco or strolling around historic Tlalpan. Just note, however, that currently the museum has been closed since the pandemic; it's expected to reopen sometime in 2024, and visitors are advised to check the museum's Facebook page for updates. 

Casa Azul (Blue House), where the iconic artist was born in 1907 (not 1910, as she wanted people to believe) and died 47 years later, is both museum and shrine. Kahlo's astounding vitality and originality are reflected in the house itself, from the giant papier-mâché skeletons outside and the retablos (small religious paintings on tin) on the staircase to the gloriously decorated kitchen and the bric-a-brac in her bedroom. The house displays relatively few of Kahlo's original paintings, but you can admire her early sketches, diary entries, tiny outfits, and wheelchair at her easel, plus her four-poster bed fitted with a mirror above, and in a separate exhibit space across the garden, a collection of her dresses presented in the context of her physical disabilities. The relaxing garden also has a small but excellent gift shop and café.

The museum has become astoundingly popular in recent years and carefully limits ticket sales to avoid the house becoming too crowded at any given time. Tickets can only be purchased online. You can buy them from the museum website, but these tend to sell out quickly. If this happens, you can try buying tickets from a third-party tour site, such as  Tiqets.com,  GetYourGuide.com, or  Viator.com. You'll pay a surcharge, but these sites sometimes have tickets available on shorter notice, and they also sell tickets many weeks in advance, which the museum's official site does not. For all the hassle of buying tickets, it's worth the effort to visit this very special place, and once you're inside, you can explore at a leisurely pace (and be glad the museum is never allowed to become too crowded).

Located in a modern business district in Puebla's southwestern outskirts, a 15-minute drive from the city center, this striking white contemporary building with curving white-concrete walls facing a courtyard with a reflecting pool is arguably as famous for its architecture as for the collection within. Renowned Japanese architect Toyo Itō designed the museum, paying homage to Puebla's rich history of Baroque art and design, which traces back to the city's settlement by the Spanish in the 1530s. One exhibit that interprets this relationship with a particular flourish is an interactive scale-model of Puebla's Centro Histórico that lets you see just how many buildings have been influenced by this important movement that spanned the early 17th through the mid-18th centuries. Other galleries are devoted to Baroque paintings, classical music, literature, theater, and other disciplines. On the second level, a stylish restaurant continues the building's beautiful design and serves quite tasty contemporary Mexican cuisine.

Each one of Diego Rivera's Mexico City murals is equal parts aesthetic revelation and history lesson, offering large overviews of Mexican history, allegorical vignettes from daily life, or, in the case of the single mural on display at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera, a visual rolodex of important figures in the nation's history. That mural, Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en el Parque Alameda (Sunday Afternoon Dream in the Alameda Park), was originally painted on a lobby wall of the Hotel Del Prado in 1947–48 with the controversial inscription "God does not exist," which was later replaced with the bland "Conference of San Juan de Letrán" to placate Mexico's conservative Catholic elites. The 1985 earthquake destroyed the hotel but not the mural, and this small, laser-focused museum was built across the street to house it. Like most of Rivera's murals, this one serves a didactic purpose as well, providing a veritable who's who of Mexico's most important historical figures; their identities are helpfully outlined in English and Spanish on panels facing the painting.

One of Mexico City's most well-known architectural icons, Museo Soumaya houses the valuable art collection of billionaire philanthropist Carlos Slim, as well as visiting exhibitions. The museum's Plaza Carso branch sits just beyond the edge of Polanco and contains sculptures by Rodin and Dalí and paintings from old masters to modernists and impressionists, including works from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco, Tintoretto, Monet, and Picasso. But there are also many Mexican artists represented, including Diego Rivera. Each floor of the museum has a different layout, and you walk along curving ramps (not unlike those in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City) to get from one floor to another. Designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, Slim's son-in-law, the $70 million building has a shape some have likened to a silver cloud, and is covered by thousands of hexagonal aluminum tiles.

Within its modernist shell, the sleek Rufino Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum contains paintings by noted Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo as well as temporary exhibitions of international contemporary art. The selections from Tamayo's personal collection, which he donated to the Mexican people, form the basis for the museum's permanent collection and demonstrate his unerring eye for great art; he owned works by Picasso, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Francis Bacon, and Henry Moore. 

Although this gleaming, expansive contemporary art museum on the campus of UNAM—in the same cluster of buildings that make up the university's cultural center—has no permanent installation, the several gallery spaces, some intimate and some enormous, are staged with exceptional changing shows throughout the year. Additionally, parts of the university's extensive collection are shown at different times. MUAC is on par with any of the city's contemporary art museums, partly thanks to the gorgeous, angular design of noted architect Teodoro González de Leon, who also designed Reforma 222, Torre Manacar, and—in collaboration—Museo Rufino Tamayo (which bears a resemblance to MUAC). The glass facade rises at a sharp angle over a long reflecting pool, facing a broad courtyard that leads to the cultural center's performance venues. A long curving window in the back of the building looks out over the volcanic landscape on which the museum and the university are built, and a grand, freestanding staircase leads to a lower-level museum restaurant (the food is fine, if not spectacular, but the space is beautiful) and some additional galleries as well as a lecture hall. There are usually five or six shows taking place at any given time, and these rotate two or three times per year. Past shows have been devoted to works by Ai Weiwei, Zaha Hadid, Anish Kapoor, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Pola Weiss. The museum shop is also superb and carries a number of reasonably priced household items.

This remarkable museum on a quiet street south of the Plaza de Armas showcases the collection of the decidedly eccentric artist, antiquarian, and decorator from Fort Dodge, Iowa, who traveled the world amassing an incredible array of works before settling in Cuernavaca in 1962. Ceramics, antique furniture, sculptures, paintings, and tapestries fill the restored 16th-century monastery, which is directly behind the Catedral de Cuernavaca. A number of Brady's works depict his illustrious friends, who included Josephine Baker, Peggy Guggenheim, and actor Geoffrey Holder. They're all magnificently arranged in rooms decorated with brightly painted tiles. Upon his death in 1986, Brady left the house and collection to the city government to be turned into a museum.

The Cultural Center of Spain is an art space, restaurant, and bar in the heart of the neighborhood, just steps away from the Cathedral and the Templo Mayor and with beautiful views of both from its open-air rooftop. It was built in an area that Hernán Cortés himself assigned to his butler, Diego de Soto, though the land changed hands many times and the current building was constructed in the 18th century, well after the years of Cortés. Temporary exhibits housed in the seven exhibition rooms often highlight young artists and showcase current artistic trends. While the exhibitions are worth a look, there are also conferences and workshops held on a nearly daily basis for anyone interested in art and culture. The rooftop bar, which hosts frequent live music events, is one of the neighborhood's better-kept secrets, with a balcony opening directly onto the Cathedral's magnificent dome and buttresses: easily one of the area's best views. Check out the center's website for listings.

Banamex has set up this small, well-organized art museum right on the main plaza. The beautiful crafts on display include textiles, ceramics, papier-mâché, and woodwork. The center also has a little on-site café and gift shop.

At the northern edge of UNAM's cultural center and an easy stroll from MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo) and the concert halls, this mesmerizing and tranquil complex of contemporary sculpture is more of a wilderness than a garden. Opened in 1979, it contains strikingly dramatic and in some cases massive sculpture installations by six renowned artists: the frequent Barragán collaborator Mathias Goeritz as well as Helen Escobedo, Manuel Felguérez, Sebastian, Hersúa, and Federico Silva, who came up with the idea of creating a natural space to display large-scale, abstract shapes. The property adjoins a massive nature preserve; if you have time, take a stroll through the rugged, arid landscape of rusty-hued volcanic rock and the flora that thrives here. It's a peaceful spot, although with little protection from the sun. Note that it closes at 4 in the afternoon.

One of the more disorienting buildings in Centro, the Ex-Teresa was first established in 1616 as a Carmelite convent and now runs as a contemporary art space. The convent was shut down after 250 years, but the space reopened in its current iteration in 1993. The two primary chapels lean precariously against one another, unsettled by centuries of seismic activity and resulting in a gravity-warping physical experience when you step inside. The space transforms dramatically with each new installation, but its vertigo-inducing power is constant.

Located in the small town of Conkal, about 9 km (6 miles) southeast of Dzibilchaltún, the Gallery of Sacred Art is is run by the Archdiocese of Yucatán. It's tucked behind a colonial church in one of the peninsula's 20 or so convents that date from the 16th century. The six rooms here showcase sculptures, vestments, paintings, and other objects that shine light on the nearly 500-year-old presence of the Catholic Church in the Yucatán.

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.

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.

Although less visited than some of the city's better-known attractions, this excellent (and free) art museum shows thoughtful and well-curated rotating exhibits of contemporary art. It's on a hilltop in the attractive La Cruz neighborhood, in a beautiful historic building beside the imposing Santuario de la Santa Cruz de Los Milagros. There are two floors of galleries, and the art is by a mix of regional and international artists.

Focusing mostly on European and Mexican artwork, this baroque 18th-century Augustinian monastery-turned-museum exhibits paintings from the 17th through 19th centuries, as well as multiple rotating exhibits of contemporary art. Ask about the symbolism of the columns and the figures in conch shells atop each arch on the fascinating baroque patio.

Better known by its initials, MAZ, the large and modern Art Museum of Zapopan is Guadalajara's top contemporary art gallery. The museum regularly holds expositions of distinguished Latin American painters, photographers, and sculptors, as well as occasional international shows.

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.

This entrancing folk-art museum is a must for anyone interested in Mexican culture and handicrafts. It's brimming with original works by the country's finest artisans, which are arranged in fascinating tableaux. The collection represents different regions of Mexico—from nativity scenes sculpted from Oaxacan clay to the intricate árbol de la vida (tree of life) sculptures crafted in Metepec. Children will love the toy room, which includes an impressive display of alebrijes (fantastical wood carvings). Since this is one of the many attractions inside Xcaret, the only way to visit the museum is by purchasing a day pass to the theme park.

This Moorish-style 18th-century house with archways, an ornate fireplace, soaring beam ceilings, and a finely detailed facade contains a wonderful little art museum that includes a mix of colonial works, historic photographs, and rotating contemporary exhibits. The space also occasionally hosts music and cultural events. It's also commonly known as Casa Humboldt, in honor of the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who stayed here in 1803.

The University of Guadalajara's contemporary art museum is in this exquisite early-20th-century building. The permanent collection includes several murals by Orozco. Revolving exhibits have contemporary works from Latin America, Europe, and the United States.