City of Palaces

Time has worn the once-ornate facades of Mexico City's historic buildings. The City of Palaces, as a colonial traveler once labeled it, is outwardly gray, filled with ponderous stone edifices weathered by the centuries. These cold exteriors often give way, once one slips past the burnished heavy wood of equally ancient doors, to bright interior refuges from the clamor of the street.





The baroque moldings and soaring arches, the ornate metalwork and fading frescoes, are reminders of past glories, of the wealth and power that once resided in the city's center but has long since moved to newer, sleeker buildings in newer, sleeker neighborhoods.