Chapultepec Castle
Various architects · Begun 1785, enlarged through the nineteenth century
Before you step inside, pause on the terrace and take in the building itself. Chapultepec Castle rises about sixty metres above the park on a rock that was sacred to the Aztecs, who kept a retreat here for their rulers. The viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez began the present building in 1785 as a summer house, but he died before it was finished and the empty shell was sold and resold, at one point serving as a store for gunpowder. In 1833 it became the Military College, and it was here, in September 1847, that the cadets known as the Niños Héroes died defending the hill against United States troops.
The elegant look of the castle today owes most to Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg, who moved in with Empress Carlota in 1864 and turned a battered barracks into a European palace, with a roof garden, marble stairs and long colonnaded terraces looking towards the city. He also laid out the straight avenue that connected the castle to the centre, now the Paseo de la Reforma. Later presidents, above all Porfirio Díaz, added stained glass, a lift and the tall watchtower that had once been the observatory.
Look at how the complex is arranged on two levels. The lower, larger block is where the history galleries and the murals are, while the higher block at the far end, the Alcázar, contains the private apartments. In 1939 President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed that no president would live here again, and in 1944 the building opened as the National Museum of History. It remains the only castle in the Americas that was actually the home of reigning monarchs.
Did You Know? The hill takes its name from the Nahuatl word Chapoltepec, which means hill of the grasshopper, and a stone grasshopper still appears in the park's fountains and emblems.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.