Zocalo Travel Guide

The vast paved open space of the Zócalo (Metro Zócalo) - properly known as the Plaza de la Constitución and said to be the second-largest such city square in the world after Moscow's Red Square - is the city's political and religious centre. It - and by extension, every other town square in Mexico - takes its name from a monument to Independence that was planned in the 1840s for the centre of the square by General Santa Ana. Like most of his other plans, this went astray, and only the statue's base (now gone) was ever erected: el zócalo literally means "the plinth". Here stand the great Cathedral , the Palacio Nacional with the offices of the president, and the city administration - all of them magnificent colonial buildings. But the area also reflects other periods of the country's history. This was the heart of Aztec Tenochtitlán too, and in the Templo Mayor you can see remarkable remains from the magnificent temples on this site. It is a constantly animated place: groups celebrating pre-Hispanic traditions dance and pound drums throughout the day, sometimes there may be street stalls and buskers in the evening, stages are set up for major national holidays and, of course, this is the place to hold demonstrations. In one of the best supported expressions of solidarity in recent years, over 100,000 people amassed here in March 2001 to support the Zapatistas after their march from Chiapas in support of indigenous rights.

Among the more certain entertainments is the ceremonial lowering of the national flag from its giant pole in the centre of the plaza each evening at sundown (typically 6pm). A troop of presidential guards march out from the palace, strike the enormous flag and perform a complex routine at the end of which the flag is left, neatly folded, in the hands of one of their number. With far less pomp, the flag is quietly raised again around half an hour later. You get a great view of this, and of everything else happening in the Zócalo, from the rooftop La Terraza restaurant/bar in the Hotel Majestic at the corner of Madero.

The Zócalo, does of course, have its seamier side. Mexico City's economic plight is most tellingly reflected in the lines of unemployed who queue up around the cathedral looking for work, each holding a little sign with his trade - plumber, electrician or mechanic - and a box with a few tools