Palace sights in Mexico
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Palacio Nacional
Home to the offices of the president of Mexico, the Federal Treasury and dramatic murals by Diego Rivera, this palace fills the entire east side of the Zócalo.
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El Palacio
Diagonally opposite the Templo de las Inscripciones is the Palace, a large structure divided into four main courtyards, with a maze of corridors and rooms. Built and modified piecemeal over 400 years from the 5th century on, it probably really was the residence of Palenque's rulers.
Its tower, built in the 8th century by Ahkal Mo' Nahb' III and restored in 1955, has remnants of fine stucco reliefs on the walls, but you're not allowed to climb up inside it. Archaeologists believe the tower was constructed so that Maya royalty and priests could observe the sun falling directly into the Templo de las Inscripciones during the winter solsticeThe northeastern courtyard, the Pat…
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Palacio del Gobernador
The Palacio del Gobernador, with its magnificent façade nearly 100m long, has been called 'the finest structure at Uxmal and the culmination of the Puuc style' by Mayanist Michael D Coe. The buildings have walls filled with rubble, faced with cement and then covered in a thin veneer of limestone squares; the lower part of the façade is plain, the upper part festooned with stylized Chac faces and geometric designs, often latticelike or fretted. Other elements of Puuc style are decorated cornices, rows of half-columns (as in the House of the Turtles) and round columns in doorways (as in the palace at Sayil). Stones forming the corbeled vaults in Puuc style are shaped somewh…
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Frontón Palacio Jai Alai
Oddly baroque in style, the striking Frontón Palacio Jai Alai is a Tijuana landmark fronting nearly an entire block of Av Revolución. Construction began in 1926, but wasn't completed until 1947. For decades it hosted the fast-moving ball game of jai alai - a sort of hybrid between squash and tennis, originating in Spain's Basque Country. Unfortunately, a strike by Mexico City players combined with the game's obscurity and lack of attendance forced the owner to close down the operation.
The building now hosts cultural events including music and theater performances, and you can usually get in to take a look at the courts and lobby area.
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Palacio Municipal
Across the square from the Catedral de San Ildefonso is Mérida’s Palacio Municipal. Originally built in 1542, it was twice refurbished, in the 1730s and the 1850s. Adjoining it is the Centro Cultural Olimpo, Mérida’s municipal cultural center. Attempts to create a modern exterior for the building were halted by government order, to preserve the colonial character of the plaza. The ultramodern interior serves as a venue for music and dance performances, as well as other exhibitions. Schedules for performances and frequent film showings are posted outside.
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Palacio de Tepantitla
This priest's residence, 500m northeast of Pirámide del Sol, is home to Teotihuacán's most famous fresco, the worn Paradise of Tláloc. The mural flanks a doorway in a covered patio, in the building's northeast corner.
The rain god Tláloc, attended by priests, is shown on both sides. To the right of the door appears his paradise, a garden-like Eden with people, animals and fish swimming in a mountain-fed river. To the left of the door, tiny human figures are engaged in a unique ball game. Frescoes in other rooms show priests with feather headdresses.
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Palacio de Gobierno
The impressive Palacio de Gobierno, which houses state government offices, was finished in 1774. It’s a neo-classical building accented by more than a few Churrigueresque decorations and an enormous 1937 mural of Miguel Hidalgo looming over an interior stairway. Hidalgo brandishes a torch in one fist while the masses struggle at his feet. Another Orozco mural in the ex-Congreso (former Congress Hall) upstairs depicts Hidalgo, Benito Juárez and other historical luminaries.
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Palacio de Gobierno
On the north side of the Plaza Grande, the Palacio de Gobierno houses the state of Yucatán’s executive government offices (and one of its tourist information centers). It was built in 1892 on the site of the palace of the colonial governors. Be sure to have a look inside at the murals painted by local artist Fernando Castro Pacheco. Completed in 1978, they were 25 years in the making and portray a symbolic history of the Maya and their interaction with the Spaniards.
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Palacio Postal
More than just Mexico City’s central post office, this early-20th-century palace is an Italianate confection designed by the Palacio de Bellas Artes’ original architect, Adamo Boari. The beige stone facade features baroque columns and carved filigree around the windows; inside, the bronze railings on the monumental staircase were cast in Florence. Philatelists can ogle the first stamp ever issued in Mexico in the 1st-floor postal museum.
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Palacio de Gobierno
On the plaza's south side, the red-and-pink stone Palacio de Gobierno is Aguascalientes' most noteworthy colonial building. Once the mansion of colonial baron Marqués de Guadalupe, it dates from 1665 and has a striking courtyard with a mural of the 1914 convention by the Chilean artist Osvaldo Barra. Barra, whose mentor was Diego Rivera, also painted the mural on the south wall, a compendium of the economic and historic forces that forged Aguascalientes.
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Palacio Clavijero
From 1660 to 1767 the Palacio Clavijero, with its awesome main patio, imposing colonnades and pink stonework, was home to the Jesuit school of St Francis Xavier. After the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish lands, the building became a warehouse, a prison and then in 1970 it was completely renovated, restored and rechristened as state government offices. Who said politics and crime don’t mix?
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Palacio de Iturbide
Built for colonial nobility, in 1821 this became the residence of General Agustín Iturbide, a hero of the struggle for independence who was proclaimed emperor here in 1822. (He abdicated less than a year later, after General Santa Anna announced the birth of a republic.) Now known as the Museo Palacio Cultural Banamex, it hosts exhibits drawn from the bank’s vast Mexican art collection.
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Palacio de los Jaguares
The Palacio de los Jaguares and Templo de los Caracoles Emplumados (Temple of the Plumed Conch Shells) are behind and below the Palacio de Quetzalpapálotl. The lower walls of several chambers off the patio of the Jaguar Palace display parts of murals showing the jaguar god in feathered headdresses, blowing conch shells and apparently praying to the rain god Tláloc.
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Palacio de Justicia
The 16th-century building on the plaza's northwest side is the Palacio de Justicia, the former Capilla Real de Indios, built for the use of indigenous nobles. The handsome mortar bas-reliefs around its doorway include the seal of Castilla y León and a two-headed eagle, symbol of the Hapsburg monarchs who ruled Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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Palacio Municipal
Beside the cathedral, the 19th-century Palacio Municipal features powerful stone arches. Finished in 1838, it was the home of Bishop Ignacio Montes de Oca from 1892 to 1915. In the rear of the building's patio is a stone fountain carved with the heads of three lions. The city's coat of arms in stained glass overlooks a double staircase.
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Palacio de Quetzalpapálotl
Off the Plaza de la Luna's southwest corner is the Palace of the Quetzal Butterfly, reckoned to be the home of a high priest. A flight of steps leads up to a roofed portico with an abstract mural, and nearby a well-restored patio has columns carved with images of the quetzal bird or a hybrid quetzal butterfly.
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Palacio de Gobierno
The neoclassical Palacio de Gobierno, built between 1770 and 1816, lines the plaza's west side. Its most illustrious lodger was Benito Juárez - first in 1863 when he was fleeing from invading French forces, then in 1867 when he confirmed the death sentence on the puppet-emperor Maximilian.
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Palacio de Gobierno
Palacio de Gobierno on the plaza's east side was built in the 18th century for a colonial family. In the turret of its main staircase is a mural of the history of Zacatecas state, painted in 1970 by Antonio Rodríguez.
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Palacio de Gobierno
The late-baroque Palacio de Gobierno was originally built for a Spanish mine-owner in the 1790s and is now featuring wonderful murals on Mexican history themes.
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Palacio de Gobierno
The Palacio de Gobierno, completed in 1906, features an airy, neo-Moorish courtyard with colorful, dramatic murals depicting the history of Sonora.
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Palacio de Gobierno
Although you can't enter the Palacio de Gobierno, it is a nice spot to contemplate some attractive architecture and enjoy the music.
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Palacio de Gobierno
Inside the Palacio de Gobierno there are vivid murals of Tlaxcala's history by Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin.
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Palacio de la Mala Noche
Palacio de la Mala Noche was built in the late 18th century for a mine owner and now houses state-government offices.
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El Palacio
South of Estructura 25 is El Palacio , notable for its X-figure ornamentation.
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