Unspecified/General

Built from dark volcanic stone in the form of a brooding pyramid-temple, the Anahuacalli Museum in the south of Mexico City was conceived by the muralist Diego Rivera to house his vast personal collection of pre-Hispanic art and to stand as a monument to the indigenous heritage of Mexico. Rivera spent much of his fortune and the latter part of his life gathering some sixty thousand ancient objects, and he designed the building himself, drawing on Aztec, Maya and Teotihuacan architecture to create a structure that resembles an ancient temple as much as a gallery, its name meaning house of Anahuac, the old name for the Valley of Mexico. Rivera did not live to see it finished, dying in 1957, and the museum was completed by his patron and friends and opened to the public in 1964. Inside, the massive stone halls, lit by narrow openings and roofed with intricate mosaic ceilings of coloured stone depicting gods and cosmic symbols, display the ancient figures, vessels and carvings in a deliberately atmospheric setting. An upper floor preserves a reconstruction of Rivera's studio with sketches for his murals. Rivera intended the building to be far more than a store for his collection; he conceived it as a gift to the Mexican people and as a temple to the pre-Hispanic civilisations he revered, a place where ancient and modern Mexico would meet, and he gave it the Nahuatl name Anahuacalli to underline that purpose. Constructed largely of the dark grey volcanic rock that covers the surrounding lava field, the massive structure rises in stern, sloping tiers that recall the temples of Teotihuacan and the Maya, and inside, the cool stone chambers are deliberately dim, the ancient figures emerging from shadow under ceilings inlaid with mosaics of coloured stone depicting deities, serpents and symbols drawn from indigenous cosmology. The thousands of objects on display, gathered by Rivera over decades of passionate collecting, include figures, masks, vessels and offerings from many of the cultures of ancient Mexico, and they are arranged so as to evoke the spiritual world that produced them. An upper level holds a reconstruction of part of Rivera's studio, with full-scale studies for some of his great murals, linking the muralist's own art to the ancient heritage that inspired it. The building, gardens and surrounding ecological park together make for an atmospheric and unusual museum, quite unlike any other in the city.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Museo 150, Mexico City, Mexico

Website: https://anahuacalli.org.mx

Opening Date: 01/01/1964