WORLD FUTURES STUDIES FEDERATION
Mexico has 1,300 museums, of which 170 are in Mexico City, being the second city with more museums in the world. These are some recommendations:
Anthropology National Museum
The National Museum of Anthropology is one of the most important museum sites in Mexico and the Americas, designed to house and exhibit the archaeological legacy of the peoples of Mesoamerica, as well as to account for the current ethnic diversity of the country.
The current MNA building was built between 1963 and 1964 in the Bosque de Chapultepec by instruction of President Adolfo López Mateos, who inaugurated it on September 17, 1964. Currently, the MNA building has 22 permanent exhibition halls, two halls temporary exhibitions and three auditoriums. It also houses the collection of the National Library of Anthropology and History.
The collection of the National Museum of Anthropology is made up of numerous archaeological and ethnographic pieces from all over Mexico. Some of the most emblematic pieces of the collection include the Piedra del Sol -which is the very heart of the museum-, the monumental Teotihuacan sculptures dedicated to the gods of water, the tomb of Pakal, as well as an Atlantean Toltec brought from Tollan -Xicocotitlan and the Tláloc Monolith that guards the entrance to the museum.
The MNA constitutes one of the main sites of tourist interest in Mexico. It attracts more than two million visitors each year. The museum is one of the largest museums on the continent.
Where to stay
Where to go
(Nacional History Museum)
It was built at the time of the Viceroyalty as a summer home for the viceroy. It was given various uses, from gunpowder storage to military academy in 1841. It was also the official residence of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (1864-1867) and the presidents of the country between 1884 and 1935.
It has undergone extensions and remodeling. It has various patios, staircases, gardens, lobbies, rooms and large spaces characteristic of the buildings of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The castle has a boulevard that directly connected the imperial residence to the center of the city, currently known as Paseo de la Reforma.
Later the building was again in disuse. After 10 years, it became the first astronomical observatory in Mexico for only 5 years. Later it was again a Military College, to later be the presidential residence, as had been planned from the beginning.
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts is a cultural venue located in the Historic Center of Mexico City, considered the most important in the manifestation of the arts in Mexico and one of the most renowned opera houses in the world.
This same one has been scene and witness of shocking artistic, social and political events of the country; Its construction dates from the end of the mandate of Porfirio Diaz, commissioned by the Mexican president on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of the beginning of the Independence of Mexico, more was inaugurated until September 29, 1934 after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. As an institution, it depends on the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), part of the Ministry of Culture of the federal government. In 1987, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by Unesco.
Inside there are various stages and rooms for the practice and exhibition of works of art. The Palace of Fine Arts Museum and the National Museum of Architecture are housed inside, the first permanently exhibits 17 mural works by seven national artists executed between 1928 and 1963, being the oldest in the country dedicated to national plastic production. Also, it is home to the National Symphony Orchestra, the National Opera Company (Opera de Bellas Artes), the National Dance Company and the Folkloric Ballet of Mexico by Amalia Hernández.
National Art's Museum
The National Museum of Art of Mexico, is located in the historic center of Mexico City. It is located in a building marked with popel number 8 of Tacuba Street, in Manuel Tolsá Square. It houses a representative collection of Mexican art, from the viceregal era to the 1950s.
The building in which it is located is the Palace of the Ministry of Communications and Public Works, building of eclectic architecture, very common at the beginning of the 20th century, but predominantly neoclassical and Renaissance. The building was destined to the National Museum of Art in 1982, and restored in 1997.
It is easily identifiable by the great equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain, who was a Spanish monarch just before Mexico gained its independence. The statue, commonly known as El Caballito, was originally in the plaza del zócalo, but was moved to different places. According to the plaque at its base, Mexico retains it, not as a sign of praise to a Spanish king, but for its quality as a work of art.1 He arrived in this square in 1979.
The permanent halls of the National Museum of Art gives visitors a glimpse into five centuries of art history in Mexico that contains works by artists such as Andrés de la Concha, José Juárez, Sebastián López de Arteaga, Cristóbal de Villalpando, Miguel Cabrera, Manuel Tolsá , Santiago Rebull, Felipe S. Gutierrez, Juan Cordero, Jose Maria Velasco, Saturnino Herran, Angel Zarraga, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl), Maria Izquierdo, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros , just to say some.
Museum of Teotihuacán
Teotihuacán is a large Mexican archaeological complex northeast of Mexico City. Through the center of the place, which was once a flourishing pre-Columbian city, passes the Calzada de los Muertos. It joins the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun. The last two have panoramic views from their peaks. Artifacts from the Teotihuacan Museum of Culture, in place, include pottery and bone works.
Teotihuacán or Teotihuacan (in Nahuatl: Teōtihuācan, "place where men become gods," "place where the gods were made," "city of the gods"), or also Teo uacan (in Nahuatl: ' Ciudad del sol ') is the name given to what was one of the largest pre-Hispanic cities in Mesoamerica. The place name is of Nahuatl origin and was used by the Mexicas to identify this city built by a civilization before them and that was already in ruins when the Mexicas saw it for the first time. To date the name given by its original inhabitants is unknown. The remains of the city are located northeast of the Valley of Mexico, in the municipalities of Teotihuacán and San Martín de las Pirámides (State of Mexico), approximately 78 kilometers away from the center of Mexico City. The area of archaeological monuments was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987.
Teotihuacán has been of interest for societies after the decline of Teotihuacan culture in Mesoamerica. Its ruins have been explored since pre-Hispanic times, among others, by the Toltecs and the Mexicas. The discovery of Teotihuacan objects in the archaeological sites of Tula and the Templo Mayor de México-Tenochtitlan confirms this. In post-classical Nahua mythology, the city appears as the setting for fundamental myths such as the legend of the Suns of the Mexica.
Currently, the remains of Teotihuacán constitute the area of archaeological monuments with the largest influx of tourists in Mexico, above Chichen Itza, El Tajin and Monte Albán. The archaeological excavations in Teotihuacán continue to this day, and have resulted in a gradual increase in the quality and quantity of knowledge that is had about this city.
Templo Mayor (Historical Center)
The Great Temple or Great Temple of Mexico is an enclosure that includes a series of constructions, buildings, towers and a patio, the physical space where they were located, enclosed by a wall that had doors that gave access to the main roads of the city.
Templo Mayor is the Spanish denomination of huey teocalli, the great temple in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, founded in 1325, which was conquered and destroyed by the Spanish in 1521. The colonial power erected a new city on its ruins, what for many centuries the main sanctuary of the Aztecs was forgotten.
Some of the remains of the Templo Mayor were discovered in sporadic excavations since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1978, construction workers discovered by chance a large relief in stone with the representation of the goddess Coyolxauhqui, which was a huge sensation and gave the impulse to finally excavate the remains of the Templo Mayor. For this, several buildings in the area had to be demolished.