National Art Museum

This guide to the National Art Museum follows the building's origins as a headquarters for the Secretariat of Communications, commissioned by Porfirio Díaz and built almost entirely with imported materials and labor: steel from New York, ironwork from Florence, elevators from Milan, and stonework by Italian sculptor brothers. You'll hear how the one Mexican engineer originally in charge left the project early, leaving Italian architect Silvio Contri to finish it alone, and what happened to Díaz's government by the time construction wrapped a decade later. Stand at the foot of the grand staircase to take in the space this palace became.