Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso

Look at the long façade of tezontle and stone that runs almost the whole length of the street: this is the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, where much of Mexico's intellectual elite was educated and where, in the 1920s, Mexican muralism was born.

1From Jesuit college to National Preparatory School

The Jesuits founded the college in 1588 as a residence for students. The building you see is the result of a major 18th-century rebuilding that gave it this sober, monumental façade. In 1767 Charles III expelled the Society of Jesus from all his realms, and the college went through several uses, including as a barracks. In 1868, after the triumph of the Republic, the National Preparatory School moved in under Gabino Barreda, who turned it into the laboratory of secular education in Mexico.

2The walls that spoke

In the early 1920s, Education Minister José Vasconcelos wanted public walls to tell Mexico's history to people who could not read. San Ildefonso was one of the first canvases. Diego Rivera painted "Creation" in the Bolívar Amphitheatre in 1922 and 1923, and between 1923 and 1926 José Clemente Orozco covered the walls of the main courtyard with scenes of the Revolution, such as "The Trench". David Alfaro Siqueiros, Fernando Leal and Jean Charlot also worked here.

This is where painting left the salons and began telling history on the walls.

Since 1992 the building has been a museum linked to the National University (UNAM), hosting first-rate temporary exhibitions.

3What to look for

• The main doorway, in carved stone, on Calle Justo Sierra.
• The contrast between the reddish tezontle walls and the grey stone frames.
• The window grilles, which give the façade its rhythm.