Palacio de los Deportes
Félix Candela's copper-clad dome — 380 feet wide, finished one month before the 1968 Olympics — still dominates the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City skyline.
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Designed by Candela, Castañeda Tamborel, and Peyri and built between 1966 and 1968, this circular arena was purpose-built for the Olympics basketball tournament. It once earned the nickname "Palacio de los rebotes" (Palace of Reverberations) before acoustic overhauls in the 1990s fixed the echo problem. Now seating 17,800, it still hosts sports and concerts.
What to look for
- The dome's square-patterned hyperbolic paraboloids — tubular aluminum frames covered in copper-sheathed plywood — spanning 120 meters
- The massive steel arches that carry the entire dome load
- The Estadio GNP Seguros directly across from the entrance within the same Magdalena Mixhuca complex
Located 6.5 miles from downtown near the junction of the Miguel Alemán Viaduct and Río Churubusco Interior Loop; operated by Grupo CIE, so check their listings for active events before visiting.
Palacio de los Deportes is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Mexico City, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Mexico City pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Mexico City
- Mexico City Metropolitan CathedralTwo hundred and forty years of construction, built on top of the Aztec sacred precinct — every generation of New Spain left something inside.
- National Museum of AnthropologyThe stone that defined how the world pictures the Aztec calendar is here — and 3.7 million people came to see it last year.
- Autódromo Hermanos RodríguezA 4.3 km ribbon of asphalt where two brothers gave their names — and their lives — to Mexican motorsport.
- Aztec Sun StoneA 24-tonne disc of olivine basalt that spent centuries buried under Mexico City's main square — then mounted on a cathedral wall — before anyone called it art.
- Palacio de Bellas ArtesStarted in 1904, halted by revolution and a sinking city, finished in 1934 — thirty years of delay show in every detail.
- University Olympic Stadium (Estadio Olímpico Universitario)This is where Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists to the sky in 1968 — one of sport's most charged political moments, in a stadium that held 83,700 people.