A city built on top of another: Mexica temples, colonial palaces and legends still told today.
Mexico City was born on an islet in Lake Texcoco as Mexico-Tenochtitlan and was reborn after the conquest as the capital of New Spain, built with the stones of the city before it. Its Historic Centre mixes Mexica ruins, baroque palaces, earthquake-proof skyscrapers and ghost stories that chroniclers set down on paper. Three free routes to discover it on foot, at your own pace.
Choose your free tour
All routes are free and can be combined. If it’s your first visit, start with the mixed route.
A mile of walking to cross seven centuries: from the Mexica temple to the viceroys' palace and the largest cathedral in the Americas.
A spendthrift son, a prisoner who escaped on a drawn ship, an eleven o'clock killer and the secret tomb of Hernán Cortés.
The great square, a baroque palace, the skyscraper that beat the earthquakes, the world's loveliest post office and the Palace of Fine Arts.
The map
The routes cross in the old town. Tap a point to see which story awaits you there.
Filled points already have a published article; the rest are in the works.
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A day in the city
Link the three routes and you will see the best of the city on foot, for free: the mixed route in the morning, history in the afternoon and legends as the sun goes down.
Morning
Afternoon
Early evening
Where to eat. Try Chiles en nogada at Hostería de Santo Domingo.
What to eat
The dishes you can’t leave without trying, and the classic spots that have been serving them for years.
Poblano peppers stuffed with minced meat and fruit, covered in a fresh walnut sauce and scattered with pomegranate seeds: green, white and red, like the flag. It's a seasonal dish of late summer, and the Hostería de Santo Domingo, which claims to be the oldest restaurant in the city, has made it its signature.
Where to try it
The taco is the street food par excellence. In the Centre, Los Cocuyos has been serving suadero and head-meat tacos at all hours for decades; for al pastor, marinated pork roasted on a vertical spit, El Tizoncito in Condesa claims to have popularised the recipe in the 1960s.
Where to try it
Freshly fried churros dusted with sugar and cinnamon, for dipping in hot chocolate, Mexican, French or Spanish style. El Moro has been frying them on the Eje Central since 1935.
Where to try it
Tortillas bathed in sauce, filled and baked, alongside tamales, sopes and other snacks of traditional cooking. Café de Tacuba, opened in 1912 in a colonial mansion, serves them among tiles and stained glass.
Where to try it
Candied sweet potatoes, cocadas, jamoncillos, crystallised fruit and marzipan from the convent and folk confectionery tradition. Dulcería de Celaya, on Avenida 5 de Mayo since 1874, sells them in a shop with period display cases.
Where to try it
