Museo de la Ciudad de México

Frommer's Review

Before you enter the Museum of Mexico City, go to the corner of República del Salvador and look at the enormous stone serpent head, a corner support at the building's base. The stone was once part of an Aztec pyramid. At the entrance, a stone doorway opens to the courtyard of this mansion, built in 1778 as the House of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya. This classic building became the Museum of the City of Mexico in 1964; it's a must for anyone interested in the country's past. Dealing solely with the Mexico Valley, where the first people arrived around 8000 B.C., the museum contains some fine maps, pictographic presentations of the initial settlements, and outlines of the social organization as it developed, as well as models of several famous buildings. Upstairs is the studio of Mexican Impressionist Joaquín Clausell (1866-1935). There's a good bookstore to the left after you enter.

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