Square, Plaza sights in Mexico City
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Zócalo
The heart of Mexico City is the Plaza de la Constitución, more widely known as the Zócalo, meaning ‘base.’ City residents gave it this nickname in the 19th century, when plans for a major monument to independence went unrealized, leaving only the pedestal. Measuring more than 220m from north to south and 240m from east to west, the Zócalo is one of the world’s largest city squares.
The ceremonial center of Aztec Tenochtitlán, known as the Teocalli, lay immediately northeast of the Zócalo. In the 1520s Cortés paved the plaza with stones from the ruined Teocalli and other Aztec buildings. The Inquisition performed its first auto-da-fe here in 1574. In the 18th…
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Tlatelolco - Plaza de las Tres Culturas
The Plaza de las Tres Culturas is so named because it symbolizes the fusion of pre-Hispanic and Spanish roots into the Mexican mestizo identity. It displays the architectural legacy of those three cultural strands: the Aztec pyramids of Tlatelolco, the 17th-century Spanish Templo de Santiago and the modern Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Ministry).
The Plaza of Three Cultures is a calm oasis in the city, but is haunted by the echoes of its sombre history. Founded by Aztecs in the 14th century, Tlatelolco was a separate dynasty from Tenochtitlán, on a separate island in Lago de Texcoco. Cortés defeated Tlatelolco's Aztec defenders here in 1521. You can view…
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Centro Histórico
Centro Histórico (Historic Centre) brims with fine colonial buildings and historic sites. Its nerve centre and the heart of Mexico City is Zócalo, the Plaza de la Constitución, which is home to the powers-that-be.
On its east side is the Palacio Nacional, built on the site of an Aztec palace. It now holds the offices of the president, a museum and historical murals by Diego Rivera. To the north of the plaza is the Catedral Metropolitana (built by the Spanish in the 1520s on the site of the Aztecs' Tzompantli). The plaza is also a stomping ground for political protesters - it's often dotted with makeshift camps of strikers or campaigners.
Also in the vicinity is the…
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Plaza Juárez
Representing the new face of the zone, this modern plaza is across the way from the Alameda’s Hemiciclo a Juárez, a semicircle of marble columns dedicated to postindependence president Benito Juárez, and behind the fully restored Templo de Corpus Christi, which now holds the DF’s archives. The plaza’s centerpiece is a pair of Tetris-block towers by leading Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta: the 24-story Foreign Relations Secretariat building and the 23-story Tribunales (courts) building. Fronting these monoliths is some interesting art, including a bronze aviary by Mexican sculptor Juan Soriano and, near the west entrance, a David Alfaro Siqueiros mosaic…
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Plaza Hidalgo & Jardín del Centenario
The focus of Coyoacán life and the scene of most of the area’s weekend fun are its twin central plazas. The eastern Plaza Hidalgo has a statue of Miguel Hidalgo; the western Jardín del Centenario is surrounded by attractive cafés and centers on a fountain with a coyote sculpture, which is a symbol of Coyoacán. The two plazas are divided by Calle Carrillo Puerto. The Coyoacán tourist office is housed in the former Coyoacán Ayuntamiento (Town Hall), also called the Casa de Cortés, on the north side of Plaza Hidalgo. It’s said that on this spot the Spanish tortured the defeated Aztec king Cuauhtémoc to try to make him reveal the whereabouts of treasure. The existing…
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Plaza San Jacinto
Every Saturday the Bazar Sábado brings a festive atmosphere, masses of color, and crowds of people to San Ángel’s pretty little Plaza San Jacinto. The main building of the Bazar Sábado is Plaza San Jacinto 11, on the north side of the square. This house served as quarters for invading forces from the US in 1847 and from France in 1863. A plaque on one of the buildings on the west side of the plaza, however, commemorates 71 soldiers of the Irish Battalion of St Patrick who were hung after helping the Mexicans resist the US invasion. The Irish were originally fighting in the American forces but thought the US cause was so unjust that they switched sides. About 50m west of…
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Plaza Tolsá
Several blocks west of the Zócalo is this handsome square, named after the illustrious late-18th-century sculptor and architect who completed the Catedral Metropolitana.
Manuel Tolsá also created the bronze equestrian statue of the Spanish king Carlos IV (who reigned from 1788 to 1808) that is the plaza's centerpiece. It originally stood in the Zócalo, then on Paseo de la Reforma, before being moved here in 1979 ('as a work of art,' a chiseled plaque emphasizes).
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