Last Updated: February 7, 2022

Famous Museums In Mexico

Mexico is a country that has seen more than its fair share of history and I’m sure it will come as no surprise that Mexico is home to a number of great museums, and there are tons of them, to be honest. 

Mexico’s capital Mexico City is home to over 150 different museums and the rest of the country also has some great museums to offer too. Join me as we run through all the best museums in Mexico so you can be sure to grab a bit of history and culture no matter where you are in this beautiful country. 

Frida Kahlo Museum

Frida Kahlo Museum

One of the best museums in Mexico City that you should certainly visit if you’re nearby is the Frida Kahlo Museum. You’ll find this museum in the Coyoacán area of Mexico city housed in the Blue House called Casa Azul, the family home of Frida Kahlo, and where the renowned Mexican artist grew up.

The family home was turned into a museum a few years after Frida Kahlo died and is today close to the most visited museum in Mexico City. Visitors to this museum can see some of her most important artwork such as Viva la Vida and Frida and her Cesarean spread out across the many walls and also see an insight into Frida herself. 

Casa Azul was the house Frida was born, lived, and died in so as visitors walk around they will be able to see her diaries, her dresses, as well as her bed and even her ashes in what was her bedroom.

Diego Rivera Mural Museum

Diego Rivera Mural Museum

Image courtesy of Flickr

The Diego Rivera Mural Museum is another of the best museums in Mexico City and it’s located right in the center of the capital. The museum is rather small but it celebrates one of the most famous Mexican artists to ever live, Diego Rivera. 

Diego Rivera painted fascinating artworks in the form of giant murals that would depict scenes around Mexico and this is a museum dedicated to him and his most famous piece – Sueño de una Tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central).

Being one of his most famous works of art, this piece was saved from Hotel del Prado after the 1985 earthquake that shook Mexico City. This piece captivates Mexican history through Alameda Central over the years and includes parts of the city such as the Monument to the Revolution, Plaza de Toros, kiosks, and lots more.

University Museum Of Contemporary Art

If you’re an art lover then one of the most interesting museums in Mexico city for you to visit would probably be the University Museum of Contemporary Art, aka the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo or MUAC. 

This museum is home to one of the largest collections of modern art and contemporary art in Mexico and the Americas. The museum is located on the campus of Mexico City’s biggest university and is housed in a stunning massive building that was designed by architect Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon.

Inside the art museum building, you’ll find a collection of pieces of Mexican art dating back to the 1950s in the form of paintings, drawings, and more innovative exhibits as well. The pieces are done by famous artists from Mexico as well as other contemporary artists that are up and coming.

In fact, this art museum is one of the best places for emerging artists to make a name for themselves. 

Folk Art Museum

Folk Art Museum

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

One of the lesser-known museums in Mexico city is the Folk Art Museum, aka the Museo de Arte Popular. The museum focuses on Mexican folk art and other popular art from Mexico as well and is a great place to soak up some indigenous culture through various different forms of arts.

You’ll find the art museum is a beautiful Art Deco building located in the old center of Mexico City. The museum’s permanent exhibitions showcase pieces that include everything from textiles to pottery across indigenous, religious, and more modern-day traditions.  

You’ll find up to three temporary exhibitions running at a time in this museum too that will focus on collections of handicrafts and even materials used to make them as well as how they are used throughout Mexico.

Once a year, this museum also puts on a show and sponsors the Alebrije Parade where Mexican folkloric monsters are paraded through the streets.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is one of the best museums in all of Mexico, let alone in Mexico City. It’s located in the Centro histórico of Mexico City and is housed inside one of the most beautiful buildings in the city too. 

The building dates back to the early 1900s and is absolutely stunning from the outside. Inside you’ll find quite a few exhibitions that focus on plastic art as well as its history as well as exhibits that focus on the top Mexican Muralists. There are amazing pieces of Mexican art by Diego Rivera, Jorge González Camarena, José Clemente Orozco, and more.

The top floor of this unique museum is where you’ll find Museo Nacional de Arquitectura which is home to exhibits of the most well-known Mexican architects. It features models, photos, and the design of major buildings for visitors to explore.

National Museum of Anthropology

National Museum of Anthropology

The National Museum of Anthropology or Museo Nacional de Antropología has only grown in popularity since it was first opened and for good reason. If there is one museum you should visit in Mexico City, it’s this one. You can forget all the art museums if they are not really your thing, as this Anthropology museum is off the charts.

The reason the Museo Nacional de Antropologia is so popular is that it’s one of the most comprehensive and ambitious museums of its kind in the world. The exhibits cover Mexican history all the way from the Mesoamerican era through to the prehispanic history before the colonial era as well as the colonial period and modern times as well.

Visiting this huge museum (it’s one of the biggest in the world) is a must and you can spend days exploring all it has to offer. Inside you’ll be able to see exhibitions of jade and pottery as well as the renowned  Aztec sunstone, the tomb of Pakal ( a Mayan ruler), and even an ancient headdress of Moctezuma.

There is no better way of learning about Mexico’s history and the people’s historical heritage than visiting this museum.

Memory and Tolerance Museum

The Memory and Tolerance Museum or the Museo Memoria y Tolerancia is one of my favorite museums in Mexico as it has an interesting goal and the exhibits are put together in a form that makes you connect with human suffering in a way you won’t have imagined.

The museum was founded by Alameda Park and its mission is to promote tolerance, human rights, and non-violence through remembering some of the worst human genocides and massacres ever.

There is an exhibition that focuses on the Holocaust and it also goes into a lot of lesser well-known genocides from around the world and Latin America. Each exhibition is designed to help everyone remember these terrible atrocities and through memory, promote tolerance so that they are never repeated.

A trip to this museum will have you re-thinking how you see the world and you’ll leave with some changes to your outlook.

National History Museum

National History Museum

The ​​National History Museum or Museo Nacional de Historia in Mexico City sits inside the Chapultepec Castle which was once a royal palace. The Chapultepec Castle palace is a stunning neo-gothic building that is now home to a large collection that depicts the fascinating history of Mexico.

The collection of exhibits covers Mexican history from the colonial times during the conquest of Mexico all the way through the Mexican Wars of Independence, and into the Mexican Revolution. This is all tied up in a way that showcases how these historical events all came together to form the Mexico you see today.

While visiting this museum in Mexico City don’t forget to walk through and admire the beauty of the palace gardens and the amazing views over the Paseo de la Reforma and the Bosque.

Templo Mayor Museum

The ​​Templo Mayor Museum or Museo del Templo Mayor can be found in the main square of Mexico City, Zocalo and the building houses the remains of some of the few ancient Aztec Temples that used to take up a lot of Mexico City.

The Aztecs called Mexico City Tenochtitlan, and it was their capital until the Spanish arrived. When the Spanish Conquistadors took over they simply destroyed all the temples of the Aztecs and built the city on top of the ruins.

The museum protects these ancient ruins so locals and tourists can visit them and remember the old Mexico City before colonization. The temple dated back to the late postclassic period of Mesoamerica and wasn’t protected until the museum was built in 1987.

Soumaya Museum

Soumaya Museum

The Soumaya Museum or Museo Soumaya is one of the top art museums in Mexico and it’s one you have to visit if you’re an art lover.

The Museo Soumaya was created by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim as a dedication to his wife after she died. It is home to an incredible collection of art that spans centuries through Mexico’s history.

The collection has pieces that date as far back as the Mayans and you’ll also find indigenous pieces as well as sculptures from the pre-colonial period in the collection. There is also some more modern art showcased from European artists and others too which includes some renowned paintings by artist Salvador Dali.

A visit to this museum will also include seeing many temporary and traveling exhibitions which are changed frequently so be sure to check what’s on show before you go.

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo

Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

The Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo is a museum dedicated to the paintings of the renowned Mexican artist, Rufino Tamayo.

Rufino Tamayo’s work dates back to the early 1900s and he is famous for his work in surrealism. Inside the art museum, you’ll find some of his best pieces as well as an extensive collection of his lesser-known works.

The museum also has a wing dedicated to more ​​contemporary artists from Mexico and it’s a great place to learn more about the modern art culture of Mexico.

Leon Trotsky Museum

Leon Trotsky Museum

Image courtesy of Flickr

The​​ Leon Trotsky Museum is quite a different museum but a fascinating one at the same time and you’ll find it just down the road from the Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán.

The story of Leon Trotsky is an interesting one. He was a communist revolutionary that was kicked out of the Soviet Union by no one other than Stalin himself. He fled across the world, trying to evade Stalin’s assassins, and ended up in Mexico City.

He continued to write socialist literature and even had a rather scandalous affair with Frida Kahlo. Eventually, his presence became too public at which point he was horrifically murdered by Stalin’s assassins in his home.

The home he was murdered in is the museum and inside you can learn about his life as well as Mexico’s communistic history with Russia.

Dolores Olmedo Museum

Dolores Olmedo Museum

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

The ​​​Dolores Olmedo Museum or Museo Dolores Olmedo is known as one of the best art museums in Mexico. You’ll find it in the Xochimilco district of Mexico city, known for its ancient Aztec canals which are worth looking at before or after seeing the museum.

The museum is named after its original curator, Dolores Olmedo, who died in 2002. Dolores was a lifelong friend of Diego Rivera, the iconic artist famous for his murals, and Dolores actually featured in a few of them.

Inside the museum, you will find a lot of Diego Rivera’s paintings as well as works done by Diego Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo. A visit to this museum will have you connecting to some of the most famed Mexican artists through the eyes of a friend and the curator of the museum.

Related: Where to stay in Mexico City

About the Author Roger Timbrook

Roger is a little obsessed with travel. He has been to over 40 countries, broken 3 suitcases and owned over 10 backpacks in 12 months. What he doesn't know about travel, ain't worth knowing!

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