Unspecified/General

The main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, known as Ciudad Universitaria or University City, is a vast and architecturally remarkable complex in the south of Mexico City that was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 for its outstanding example of mid-twentieth-century modernism. Built largely between 1949 and 1952 on a lava field, the campus was the work of more than sixty architects, engineers and artists who together created a unified ensemble blending modern architecture, urban design, landscape and the fine arts in a distinctly Mexican idiom. Its most celebrated feature is the central library, whose windowless tower is entirely covered in a vast mosaic mural by Juan O'Gorman depicting the history of Mexican culture, while other buildings bear monumental works by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and other leading muralists. The university itself traces its origins to a royal decree of the sixteenth century, making it one of the oldest in the Americas, and today it is the largest in the country, home to tens of thousands of students. Visitors come to see the murals, the Olympic stadium, the botanical garden and the sculpture-strewn ecological reserve. The campus was conceived as a complete city of learning, gathering faculties that had been scattered across the old centre of Mexico City onto a single vast site, and its planners drew on the latest international ideas of modern architecture and urban design while consciously seeking to give them a Mexican character, above all through the integration of monumental art into the buildings. The result is celebrated as a rare and successful fusion of architecture, landscape and the visual arts, and it stands as one of the foremost examples of twentieth-century modernism anywhere. The mosaic that sheathes the central library tower, executed by Juan O'Gorman in coloured natural stones gathered from across the country, is among the largest murals in the world and depicts the sweep of Mexican history and thought, while Diego Rivera's relief on the Olympic stadium and David Alfaro Siqueiros's dynamic works on the rectory building turn the campus into an open-air gallery of muralism, the art movement for which Mexico became renowned. The university to which it belongs is the largest and most important in the country and one of the oldest in the Americas, and its campus is a place of constant activity, while areas such as the protected lava-field ecological reserve, the botanical garden, museums and concert halls also draw outside visitors. Inscribed by UNESCO in 2007, University City rewards the curious traveller with a striking encounter with modern Mexican art and architecture.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Ciudad Universitaria UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

Website: https://www.unam.mx

Opening Date: 01/01/1952