Palacio Nacional

The Palacio Nacional occupies the entire east side of the Zócalo — a 200-metre-long colonial building that sits on the site of Moctezuma's palace, was the seat of the Spanish viceroys for 300 years, and now houses the offices of the President of Mexico. The building is open to the public, free of charge, and the reason to visit is on the main staircase: Diego Rivera's mural cycle 'The Epic of the Mexican People,' one of the most ambitious and politically charged works of art in the 20th century.

Rivera's murals cover the staircase walls and the surrounding corridors, depicting the entire history of Mexico — from the idealised pre-Hispanic paradise of Tenochtitlan through the brutality of the Spanish conquest, the colonial period, independence, revolution, and an imagined socialist future. The murals took Rivera over 20 years (1929-1951), and they're painted with such density of detail and narrative that you could spend an hour on a single wall. The central panel, showing the Aztec market of Tlatelolco, is a masterwork of visual storytelling — hundreds of figures engaged in trade, warfare, ritual, and daily life, all rendered with Rivera's characteristic combination of folk art warmth and political anger.

The palace also contains murals by Rivera in the upper corridors showing pre-Hispanic civilisations, and the botanical garden in the central courtyard is a peaceful retreat from the Zócalo crowds. Free admission and the absence of a timed-entry system mean you can revisit individual murals as many times as you want, which is useful because the detail in Rivera's work rewards repeated looking.