Torres de Satélite
Five concrete towers in red, blue, yellow, and white — one of Mexico's first large-scale urban sculptures, planted at the entrance to a planned suburb.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Mexico City offline.
Conceived in 1957 by architect Luis Barragán and sculptor Mathias Goeritz, the original plan called for seven towers reaching 200 meters. Budget cuts produced something stranger: five towers between 30 and 52 meters, in bold primary colors, inaugurated in March 1958 as the symbol of the newly built Ciudad Satélite. Goeritz wanted orange throughout; pressure from investors forced the shift to primary colors — and the result is harder to forget.
What to look for
- The red tower — Alejandro Jodorowsky had a circular hole painted onto its side for The Holy Mountain (1973), and the protagonist is hoisted up it to meet an Alchemist inside.
- The color logic: one red, one blue, one yellow (the primary subtractive colors), plus two white towers — count them.
- The height gap between the tallest (52 m / 170 ft) and the shortest (30 m / 98 ft), which gives the cluster its uneven, restless silhouette.
Located in the Ciudad Satélite district of Naucalpan — technically in the State of Mexico, not Mexico City proper; factor in extra travel time from the city center.
Torres de Satélite 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.