2 Best Sights in Mexico City, Mexico

The castle on Cerro del Chapulín (Grasshopper Hill) within Bosque de Chapultepec has borne witness to all the turbulence and grandeur of Mexican history. In its earliest form it was an Aztec palace, where the Mexica made one of their last stands against the Spaniards. Later it was a Spanish hermitage, gunpowder plant, and military college. French emperor Maximilian used the castle, parts of which date from 1783, as his residence, and his example was followed by various presidents from 1872 to 1940, when Lázaro Cárdenas decreed that it be turned into the Museo Nacional de Historia.

Displays on the museum's ground floor cover Mexican history from the conquest to the revolution. The bathroom, bedroom, tea salon, and gardens were used by Maximilian and his wife, Carlotta, in the 1860s. The ground floor also contains works by 20th-century muralists O'Gorman, Orozco, and Siqueiros, and the upper floor is devoted to temporary exhibitions, Porfirio Díaz's malachite vases, and religious art. From the garden and terrace, visitors can enjoy sweeping views of the city skyline.

Built between 1779 and 1785, this baroque palace—note the imposing door and its carved-stone trimmings—was originally a residence for the Counts of Moncada and the Marquises of Jaral de Berrio, a title created only five years earlier. The palace takes its name from Agustín de Iturbide, who stayed here for a short time in 1822. One of the military heroes of the independence movement, the misguided Iturbide proclaimed himself emperor of Mexico once the country finally achieved freedom from Spain. He was staying in the palace when he became emperor, a position he held for less than a year before being driven into exile. In the two centuries since, the house has been a school, a café, and a hotel. In 1964, the Palacio Iturbide became the property of Banamex, which oversaw its restoration and eventually reopened the space in 2004 as a cultural center, showing major exhibitions in the grand central atrium.