Monument to the Revolution and Colonia Juárez on Foot: Six Museums

Where a president was mourned

Why it's here. Venustiano Carranza, leader of the Constitutionalist revolution and president of Mexico, rented this house and lived here with his eldest daughter, Julia, for the last months of his life. In May 1920 he left the city and was murdered on the road; his body was brought back here and lay in state in its living room. The house is kept as a family home of the period, with the rooms on the ground floor and the bedrooms upstairs.

Don't miss.

• The living room where Carranza's body lay in state.
• His bedroom, with family photographs from his childhood and his travel trunk.
• The three history rooms upstairs.

Plan for about an hour.

Next: walk about 350 m to El Eco, past the Jardín del Arte on Sullivan Street.

A building made to be felt

Why it's here. Mathias Goeritz designed El Eco in 1953 as "emotional architecture": a building meant to move people rather than just house art, with narrowing corridors, sharp angles and a tall tower in the courtyard. Today it belongs to UNAM and shows experimental contemporary art.

Don't miss.

• The building itself, starting with the courtyard.
• Whatever installation is on: artists are invited to work with the space.

Plan for about 45 minutes.

Nearby. The Jardín del Arte, around the corner, fills with painters selling their work on Sundays.

Next: walk about 600 m to MUCHO, crossing Paseo de la Reforma by the Monument to Cuauhtémoc, the last Mexica emperor.

The chocolate museum

Why it's here. Chocolate is a Mexican gift to the world, and MUCHO tells its story across nine rooms: from cacao in pre-Hispanic times, through the colonial period, to the brands generations of Mexicans grew up with.

Don't miss.

• The room lined with tablets of table chocolate.
• The old packaging and the cups and pots used to serve chocolate over the centuries.
• The spice room, where you guess the scents.

Plan for about an hour. The museum also runs workshops on grinding chocolate on a metate; ask at the entrance.

Next: walk north about 800 m to the Monument to the Revolution. You'll see its dome from blocks away.

Under the monument

Why it's here. The National Museum of the Revolution is underneath the Monument to the Revolution, which also holds the remains of Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa and other leaders of the period. Its eight rooms follow the story from the end of the Porfiriato to the government of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Don't miss.

• The rooms on the democratic, constitutionalist and popular revolutions.
• The monument itself, from the plaza around it.

Plan for about an hour and a half.

Next: the San Carlos Museum is about 350 m away, across the Plaza Julio Antonio Mella.

Old Masters in a neoclassical palace

Why it's here. The National Museum of San Carlos has one of the most important collections of Western art from the 16th to the 20th century in Latin America. It's in the Palacio de Buenavista, designed by Manuel Tolsá, with an oval courtyard at its center.

Don't miss.

• The European paintings, which reached Mexico through the old Academy of San Carlos, commissions and the convents closed in the 19th century.
• The oval courtyard.

Plan for about an hour and a half.

Nearby. The Panteón de San Fernando, about 400 m east, is the old cemetery where Benito Juárez is buried.

Next: walk about 1 km southeast to La Ciudadela. Our Historic Center route covers the Alameda and the streets beyond it, a few blocks east.

Photography in the old fortress

Why it's here. The Centro de la Imagen is the country's main space for photography, inside La Ciudadela, the 18th-century building where the rebels held out during the Decena Trágica of 1913, the ten days of fighting that ended Madero's government. It has no permanent collection, so there's always something new.

Don't miss.

• Whatever photography exhibition is on.
• The courtyards of the Biblioteca de México, in the same building.

Plan for about an hour.

To end the day. The Ciudadela crafts market is a couple of minutes away, and on the plaza next door, couples dance danzón on Saturdays. The Museum of Popular Art, a stop on our Christmas route, is a short walk north.