Garden of the Alcázar and the Caballero Alto
Various architects · Garden laid out 1860s; tower rebuilt in the 1870s
Climb to the top of the Alcázar and you arrive in a garden in the sky. A rectangular parterre of clipped hedges, roses and palms surrounds a central fountain, enclosed on all sides by the arcaded terraces of the palace, and above it rises a squat stone tower with a tiled roof, the Caballero Alto. Stand at the parapet and the whole city spreads out below you, with the straight line of the Paseo de la Reforma running from the foot of the hill towards the skyscrapers of the centre.
The garden was Maximilian's idea; he had grown up in Habsburg palaces with roof terraces and wanted his Mexican residence to have the same feeling of a villa above the trees. The tower predates him, belonging to the original viceregal building and later serving as an astronomical observatory in the 1870s, which is why it once carried a dome. Look at the contrast between the formal European garden and the vast Mexican park below, where the ancient ahuehuete cypresses that the Aztec rulers planted still grow.
After the empire fell the presidents kept the garden as a private retreat, and Porfirio Díaz added the neat gravel paths and the fountain you see now. Since 1944 it has been the natural finish to a visit, the place where families take photographs and where the view reminds you why every ruler of Mexico wanted to live on this hill. If you have time, walk the full circuit of the terrace: from the eastern side you look towards the historic centre, and from the west across the lake and woods of the park.
Did You Know? In the 1870s the Caballero Alto tower briefly housed Mexico's National Astronomical Observatory before it moved to Tacubaya.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.