Alameda Central

Alameda Central is the oldest public park in the Americas — established in 1592 on the site where the Spanish Inquisition burned heretics (a fact the tourist brochures tend to understate), and now a shaded rectangle of fountains, paths, and the afternoon crowd of office workers, street vendors, and families that fills every Mexican public space. The park sits between Bellas Artes and the Torre Latinoamericana, making it the green centre of the Centro Histórico.

The park was modelled on the alamedas (poplar-lined promenades) of Spain and was originally reserved for the elite — indigenous people and mestizos were excluded until the 19th century. The fountains, iron railings, and the Hemiciclo a Juárez (a semicircular monument to President Benito Juárez, Mexico's most revered leader) give the park a formal, European character that contrasts with the informal energy of Mexican street life happening around and within it.

The Museo Mural Diego Rivera, on the park's western edge, houses Rivera's famous mural 'Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda' — a 15-metre panorama depicting Mexican history as a promenade through this very park, with historical figures from Cortés to Frida Kahlo strolling together. The mural was originally painted in the Hotel del Prado across the street but was moved to its purpose-built museum after the hotel was damaged in the 1985 earthquake. The park is best visited on a Sunday afternoon, when it fills with balloon sellers, cotton candy vendors, and the general atmosphere of a city that uses its public spaces as communal living rooms.