The Best Art, Architecture & Museums

Museo Nacional de Antropología: Among the world's most outstanding museums, the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City contains riches representing 3,000 years of the country's past. Also on view are fabulous artifacts of still-thriving indigenous cultures. The building, designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, is stunning.

Museo Frida Kahlo (Frida Kahlo House & Museum): While perhaps not a world-class collection of works by Mexico's first couple of art, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, this museum does contain a strong sampling of their works, plus their fascinating private collection. With rooms arranged as they were when the couple lived here, in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán, it also allows visitors to peek into the lives of these creative masters. This is also where much of the 2002 film Frida was shot.

Palacio Nacional: Mexico's center of government and presidential office was originally built in 1692 on the site of Moctezuma's "new" palace, to be the home of Hernán Cortez. The top floor, added in the late 1920s, holds a series of stunning Diego Rivera murals depicting the history of Mexico.

Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City: The country's premier venue for the performing arts, this fabulous building is the combined work of several masters, including the Italian architect Adamo Boari. The theater's exterior is early-20th-century Art Nouveau, covered in marble; the interior is 1930s Art Deco.

The Templo Mayor's Aztec Splendor: The Templo Mayor and Museo del Templo Mayor, in Mexico City, are an archaeological excavation and a museum with 6,000 objects on display. They showcase the variety and splendor of the Aztec Empire as it existed in the center of what is now Mexico City.

Catedral Metropolitana: This towering cathedral, begun in 1573 and finished in 1788, blends baroque, neoclassical, and Mexican churrigueresque architecture, and was constructed primarily from the stones of destroyed Aztec temples.

Santa Prisca y San Sebastián Church: One of Mexico's most impressive baroque churches, completed in 1758, this church in Taxco has an intricately carved facade, an interior decorated with gold-leafed saints and angels, and paintings by Miguel Cabrera, one of Mexico's most famous colonial-era artists.

Mexican Masks in Zacatecas: Masks are a ubiquitous feature in Mexican festivals and folk art, and the Museo Rafael Coronel in Zacatecas has the greatest collection in the country.

Museo Virreinal de Guadalupe: Six kilometers (4 miles) southeast of Zacatecas in the small town of Guadalupe, this Franciscan convent and art museum holds a striking collection of 17th- and 18th-century paintings by such masters as Miguel Cabrera and Cristóbal de Villalpando. The expressive, dramatic works will fascinate art lovers.

Morelia's Cathedral: Sober lines, balanced proportions, a deft blending of architectural styles, and monumental height -- Morelia's cathedral is the most beautiful in the country. It's built of brownish-pink stone that turns fiery rose in the late-afternoon sun.

Xalapa's Museo de Antropología: With the finest examples of Olmec and Totonac sculpture and ceramics, this museum includes the best collection of the Olmec megalithic heads.

Puebla's Capilla del Rosario: Located in the church of Santo Domingo, this chapel is a tour de force of baroque expression, executed in molded plaster, carved wood, Talavera tile, and gold leaf. The overall effect is to overpower the senses.

Puebla's Museo Amparo: A magnificent collection of pre-Columbian and colonial art, beautifully displayed.

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