Zócalo
A 240-by-240-metre square where Aztec ceremony, colonial pageantry, and modern protest have all claimed the same ground.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Mexico City offline.
The Zócalo has anchored Mexico City for nearly 700 years, first as the main ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan, then as the colonial Plaza Mayor. Its formal name — Plaza de la Constitución — comes from the 1812 Cádiz Constitution signed in Spain, not any Mexican law. The nickname itself is an accident: a planned independence column was abandoned after only the plinth (zócalo) was built. The plinth is gone; the name stayed.
What to look for
- The enormous Mexican flag at the center, raised and lowered on ceremony each day, then carried into the National Palace on the east side
- The Nacional Monte de Piedad building at the northwest corner, flanking the square alongside the Metropolitan Cathedral to the north
- The edge of the Templo Mayor site one block northeast — just outside the square's sightlines, but a short walk from the plaza's northeast corner
Metro: Zócalo/Tenochtitlan station, northeast corner of the square — no sign above ground marks the entrance.
Zócalo 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.