National Palace

Filling the entire east side of the Zócalo is the National Palace, a red tezontle façade some two hundred metres long. This territory has been governed from here for five centuries, and it was a seat of power even before that.

1On the site of Moctezuma's houses

This plot was occupied by the so-called new houses of Moctezuma II, the palace of the ruler who received Hernán Cortés in 1519. After the conquest, Cortés built his own residence here. In 1562 the Crown bought the building from his son Martín Cortés and made it the Royal Palace, home of the viceroys and seat of the high court, the Audiencia. In 1692, during a riot sparked by a shortage of maize, the crowd set it on fire; much of today's building comes from the reconstruction that followed.

2The bell and the murals

After independence it became the National Palace. Above the central doorway hangs the bell of the parish church of Dolores, associated with Father Miguel Hidalgo's call to arms in the early hours of 16 September 1810; it was brought from Guanajuato in 1896. Every 15 September at night, the president rings it from the central balcony and repeats the Cry of Independence before a packed square. The third storey you see was added in the 1920s.

Inside, between 1929 and 1951, Diego Rivera painted the history of Mexico from end to end along the staircase and the galleries of the main courtyard.

In those murals you'll find the Tlatelolco market, the conquest, the Reform and the Revolution, with dozens of recognisable figures.

3What to look for

• The Dolores bell, in the niche above the central balcony.
• The three doorways facing the square; the central one is the Gate of Honour.
• The tezontle, the reddish volcanic stone of the great colonial buildings.