Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block

Don’t let all that messy construction stop you from exploring historic downtown. A good place to start is the Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block, which complements its respectable collection of pre-Columbian, Western and contemporary art with often excellent traveling exhibits and a superb gift shop. Works are displayed in the modern main building and five historic ones, including the 1854 Casa Cordova, one of Tucson’s oldest buildings. The museum complex is part of the Presidio Historic District, which embraces the site of the original Spanish fort and a ritzy residential area once nicknamed ‘Snob Hollow.’ It teems with restored 19th-century mansions, but the original fort is completely gone, although there’s a short reconstructed section at the corner of Church Ave and Washington St. Shoppers should steer towards Old Town Artisans (201 N Court Ave), a block-long warren of adobe houses filled with galleries and crafts stores set around a lush and lovely courtyard café. A couple of blocks south of Alameda St, Congress St is the main downtown drag and home to the newly spiffed-up art-deco Fox Theatre, a 1930s beauty with fluted golden columns, water fountains and a giant sunburst mural radiating from the ceiling. Past Cushing St is the Barrio Histórico District, which was an important business district in the late 19th century and is now home to funky shops and galleries in brightly painted adobe houses. Don’t miss El Tiradito (221 S Main Ave), a quirky, crumbling ‘wishing shrine’ with a bizarre story of passion and murder. Legend has it a young herder was killed by his father-in-law after getting caught making love to his mother-in-law and is now buried where he fell. These days, pious locals bring flowers and burn candles praying for their wishes to come true.