8 Best Sights in Mexico

The center of government in Mexico City since the time of the Mexica (aka Aztecs), Palacio Nacional's long, volcanic stone facade is both a symbol of political power and a staging ground for acts of resistance. Construction of the national palace was initiated by Cortés on the site of Moctezuma II's royal residence and remodeled by the viceroys. Its current form dates from 1693, although its third floor was added in 1926. If it's open to the public, the entire building is worth a look, even just for the novel experience of wandering freely through an influential nation's primary seat of government, but most visitors come for Diego Rivera's sweeping murals on the second floor of the main courtyard. For more than 20 years, starting in 1929, Rivera and his assistants mounted scaffolds day and night, perfecting techniques adapted from Renaissance Italy's frescoes. The result is nearly 1,200 square feet of vividly painted wall space, titled 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; only a few vignettes acknowledge the more violent elements of some pre-Hispanic societies. 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 the most visited. The palace also houses a minor museum that focuses on 19th-century president Benito Juárez and the Mexican Congress. Other exhibition spaces house rotating, and sometimes quite extraordinary, exhibitions, typically advertised on a large billboard in the Zócalo.

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 "El Grito," the historic shout of independence, to throngs of citizens below.

The Palacio Nacional has historically been open to visitors, but the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrado changed this and private tours are currently not allowed. This is likely to change with the next presidential election in June 2024.

The place where the Mexica emperor Cuauhtémoc was held prisoner by Cortés is often alleged to have been rebuilt in the 18th century from the stones of the conquistador's original house, although historians agree that Cortés himself lived not here but several blocks away by La Conchita Church. Topped by two coyote figures, this long, single-story building on the north side of Plaza Hidalgo houses Coyoacán's municipal government offices and a small tourism visitor center (as well as the local library in the adjacent building). You can wander through the wide arches to see the handsomely tiled courtyard.

The adobe structure of 1643 was replaced with this churrigueresque and neoclassical stone structure in the 18th century. Within are Jalisco's state offices and two of José Clemente Orozco's most passionate murals, both worth the visit alone. One just past the entrance depicts a gigantic Father Miguel Hidalgo looming amid figures representing oppression and slavery. Upstairs, the other mural (look for a door marked "Congreso") portrays Hidalgo, Juárez, and other Reform-era figures.

The 19th-century neoclassical state capitol is on the zócalo's south side. It hosts a Oaxacan history museum where you can see a variety of weird and wonderful objects relating to Oaxaca's past. A 1988 fresco by Arturo García Bustos wraps around the stairwell. In it, altars to the dead, painters of codices, fruit sellers, gods, and musicians crowd together to catalog the customs and legends of Oaxaca's indigenous people. At the top, on the left side of the mural, note the apoala tree, which, according to Mixtec legend, bore the flowers from which life sprang. If there's a protest in front of the building—and there occasionally is—it will be closed to visitors.

Notable graduates of this former Tridentine seminary, built in 1770, include independence hero José María Morelos, social reformer Melchor Ocampo, and Mexico's first emperor, Agustín de Iturbide. In the 1960s local artist Alfredo Zalce painted the extensive yet simplistic murals (on the stairway and second floor), which depict dramatic, often bloody scenes from Mexico's history. There's a tourist office here, too.

Inside the eastern entrance to this government building north of the main square are murals by local painter Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin depicting Tlaxcala's pivotal role in the Spanish conquest. The city aligned itself with Cortés against the Aztecs, thus swelling the conqueror's ranks significantly.

Visit the seat of state government on the north side of Plaza Grande. You can see Fernando Castro Pacheco's murals of the bloody history of the conquest of the peninsula, painted in bold colors and influenced by the Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. On the main balcony (visible from outside on the plaza) stands a reproduction of the Bell of Dolores Hidalgo, on which Mexican independence rang out on the night of September 15, 1810, in the Guanajuato town of Dolores Hidalgo. On the anniversary of the event, the governor rings the bell and leads the crowds below in the Grito (battle cry), a ritual performed in town squares across the country.

Dubbed La Casa de la Corregidora, this building now houses the city's municipal government offices, but in 1810 it was home to Querétaro's mayor-magistrate (El Corregidor) and his wife, Josefa Ortíz de Domínguez (La Corregidora). La Corregidora's literary salon was actually a cover for conspirators—including Ignacio Allende and Father Miguel Hidalgo—to plot a course for independence. When he discovered the salon's true nature, El Corregidor imprisoned his wife in her room, but not before she alerted Allende and Hidalgo. Soon after, on September 15, Father Hidalgo tolled the bell of his church to signal the onset of the fight for freedom. A replica of that bell caps this building, and two contemporary murals in the central courtyard depict key players in Querétaro's history.