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Penthouse “El Cielo De Roma” – Guide to Mexico City

San Miguel Chapultepec & Tacubaya on Foot

Why San Miguel Chapultepec and Tacubaya

Two neighborhoods, one walk. San Miguel Chapultepec is a quiet grid of leafy streets with some of the city’s best galleries, two houses by Luis Barragán and good places to eat. Tacubaya, just south, is older, louder and rougher: a colonial village where viceroys and archbishops kept country houses, now one of the busiest transport hubs in the city.

They sit on the southwest edge of Chapultepec Park, between Avenida Constituyentes and the Circuito Interior. Most visitors come for the Barragán house and leave in an Uber. They miss a 17th-century country house, a 16th-century Dominican church, the city’s first skyscraper and a market with barbacoa from 8:00.

This walk suits architecture people, gallery-goers and repeat visitors. Be warned about Tacubaya, though. Around the Metro it is crowded, dirty in places and not pretty, and you have to look past the stalls and traffic to see the old buildings.

Practical basics

The walk is about 5.3 km, one way, and takes most of a day with a house tour, a gallery or two and lunch. Take an Uber or taxi to the start and home from the end. Do it on a Tuesday to Friday.

Start LABOR, Gral. Francisco Ramírez 5, across from Casa Luis Barragán
Finish Parroquia de la Candelaria, Mártires de la Conquista 65, Tacubaya
Distance About 5.3 km; roughly 1 hour 10 minutes of pure walking
Time needed 5–6 hours with a Barragán tour, a museum, coffee and lunch
Best day Tuesday to Friday: the galleries, Casa del Tiempo and the Cartography museum are all open
Avoid Sunday and Monday, when most galleries are closed; the Cartography museum and Comal Oculto, the lunch stop, close on Mondays
Toilets Marne and Comal Oculto for customers; the markets have paid toilets (a few pesos); the Cartography museum

The houses need planning. Casa Barragán, Casa Ortega, Casa de la Bola and Casa Gilardi are guided visits booked ahead. Barragán and Gilardi both mostly take morning visitors. On this route they are only about 15 minutes apart on foot (about 1.2 km), so an early Barragán tour and a late-morning Gilardi visit can work. Skip the Cartography museum and the walk is about 500 meters shorter.

If you come by public transport, Metro Constituyentes (Line 7) is a block from Casa Barragán, and the Candelaria is a few minutes from Metro Tacubaya (Lines 1, 7 and 9) and Metrobús Line 2.

Walk Tacubaya in daylight and keep your phone in a front pocket around the Metro and the Alameda. San Miguel Chapultepec is calm by comparison.

A short history

The Mexica called Tacubaya Atlacuihuayan, usually translated as “where water is gathered,” and its aqueduct fed Tenochtitlan. Sitting high above the flooding valley, it drew the Spanish elite, who built mills, churches and country houses. The Dominican convent was finished in 1590.

In 1737 Archbishop Vizarrón, who was also viceroy, built a palace here, the Arzobispado. Then came the 19th century. A Tacubaya pastry cook’s claim for damages helped start the Pastry War with France in 1838. On 8 September 1847 the Battle of Molino del Rey was fought just north of today’s San Miguel Chapultepec, and General Antonio León was killed. The Plan de Tacubaya of 1857 set off the Reform War, and on 11 April 1859 liberal prisoners were shot here. Juárez renamed the town Tacubaya de los Mártires.

The National Observatory moved into the old palace in 1883 and stayed until the 1950s, hence Avenida Observatorio. Tacubaya lost its municipal government in 1928 and was swallowed by the city.

San Miguel Chapultepec began as a 16th-century village. In the late 19th century Rafael Martínez de la Torre got permission to subdivide it but built no streets or services; buyers paid for them bit by bit, and it only became an official colonia in 1913. The streets are named after generals and governors, which is why every sign starts with “Gral.” or “Gob.” Antonio León has one.

Barragán built his first house in the city on Francisco Ramírez in the 1940s and his own next door in 1948; UNESCO listed it in 2004. The galleries followed the Galería de Arte Mexicano (1935), and in 2026 the Michelin Guide gave Comal Oculto a Bib Gourmand.

The route

The walk runs one way. It starts on Barragán’s street, goes east through the galleries of San Miguel Chapultepec and south to the Edificio Ermita, then west to Parque Lira and down into Tacubaya, ending at the Candelaria church. Red circles are the 14 stops. Brown circles are cafés and gold circles are bakeries near the route; blue squares are other food and chain cafés. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

San Miguel Chapultepec & Tacubaya on Foot map
Red circles are the numbered walk stops.
Coffee 16Deli Lou · 17Woom Café · 18Espressopolitan
Bakeries 15La Milla · 19Marne Panadería
Click to enlarge. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
# Stop What it is
1 LABOR Gallery in a walled garden
2 Casa Luis Barragán and Casa Ortega Barragán’s own house and his first one
3 Mercado El Chorrito Neighborhood market, barbacoa
4 Kurimanzutto Contemporary gallery
5 Galería de Arte Mexicano The city’s first gallery
6 Casa Gilardi Barragán’s last house
7 Casa del Tiempo 1870 mansion, university cultural center
8 Edificio Ermita Art Deco flatiron
9 Parque Lira Old estate garden with an arch
10 Museo Nacional de la Cartografía Maps in a 1686 church
11 Museo Casa de la Bola 17th-century country house
12 Mercado Cartagena Tacubaya’s market
13 Alameda de Tacubaya and Metro Tacubaya Plaza, obelisk, transport hub
14 Parroquia de la Candelaria 16th-century Dominican church

The walk, part 1: Barragán to the Ermita

The first half is San Miguel Chapultepec. You get Barragán’s street, a market, the galleries, his last house and an old mansion, and you finish at the Ermita on the Tacubaya edge.

1. LABOR

Gral. Francisco Ramírez 5 · Tue–Thu 11:00–18:00, Fri–Sat 11:00–15:00 · free

Have the driver drop you on General Francisco Ramírez, a short, plain street most people walk down twice looking for the Barragán house. LABOR is a contemporary gallery around a walled garden. No sign; ring the buzzer. It opens at 11:00, so if your Barragán tour is earlier, do the house first and cross back afterwards.

2. Casa Luis Barragán and Casa Ortega

Casa Luis Barragán and Casa Ortega
Casa Luis Barragán and Casa Ortega. Photo: [1]

[Casa Luis Barragán](https://casaluisbarragan.org): Gral. Francisco Ramírez 12–14 · guided tours only, book online, no Sunday tours listed · from 400 pesos (~21 USD) Casa Ortega: Gral. Francisco Ramírez 22 · by appointment only · check price

Across the street, look for an almost blank wall. That is the point. Barragán built this house and studio in 1948 and died here in 1988. Behind the wall are the colored rooms, the library staircase and the garden architects fly in to see. Tours take about 40 minutes in small groups; minimum age 12. Book weeks ahead.

Two doors down is Casa Ortega, his first house here. In 1947 he sold it to the silversmith Alfredo Ortega, whose family still lives in it. Visitors report paying about 650 pesos (~34 USD). Write well ahead; replies are slow.

3. Mercado El Chorrito

Gob. Melchor Múzquiz s/n · daily 8:00–18:00

Walk about six minutes east. Officially Mercado Plutarco Elías Calles, opened in 1955. “The little trickle” is either the vendors tapping a water pipe or a pipe that burst during construction, depending on who tells it. Come for barbacoa, a juice or a set lunch.

Coffee break: La Milla (Gral. Francisco Molinos del Campo 19) is a café and bakery that opens at 7:00, and Deli Lou (Gob. Gregorio V. Gelati 78) does baguettes, cakes and coffee. Both are a block or two north of the route to Kurimanzutto (gold and brown circles on the map).

4. Kurimanzutto

[Kurimanzutto](https://www.kurimanzutto.com): Gob. Rafael Rebollar 94 · Tue–Thu 11:00–18:00, Fri–Sat 11:00–16:00 · free

Walk about six minutes east. On the way along Juan Cano, look in at Patricia Conde Galería (Juan Cano 68, Mon–Fri 12:00–18:00, Sat 12:00–16:00) for Mexican photography. Kurimanzutto, run by Mónica Manzutto and José Kuri with Gabriel Orozco, is an old house redesigned by Alberto Kalach. The building alone is worth it.

5. Galería de Arte Mexicano

[Galería de Arte Mexicano](https://www.galeriadeartemexicano.com): Gob. Rafael Rebollar 43 · Mon–Thu 10:30–17:00, Fri 10:30–14:00 · free

Three minutes north, a white house with no sign; ring the bell. Inés Amor’s gallery, founded in 1935, showed Rivera, Orozco, Tamayo, Carrington and Kahlo, and Las dos Fridas was painted for a show here.

6. Casa Gilardi

Casa Gilardi
Casa Gilardi. Photo: [2]

[Casa Gilardi](https://casagilardi.mx): Gral. Antonio León 82 · by appointment, weekday mornings · 600 pesos (~32 USD), cash

Two minutes further on is Barragán’s last completed house, commissioned by the adman Francisco Gilardi in 1975 and built in 1976–1977. Pink facade, extraordinary light. It is still a family home, and the owners’ son often gives the tour. Not booked? Admire the facade.

Lunch: Comal Oculto (Gob. Protasio Tagle 66A) is four minutes south-east, on the way to the next stop. It moved here from Gómez Pedraza. Everything comes off the comal: handmade gorditas, sopes, flautas ahogadas, enmoladas in mole poblano, at communal tables. It is inexpensive (Michelin’s lowest price band), closed Monday, and since the 2026 Bib Gourmand there is a wait; check hours. If the line is too long, Milpa (Gob. Tiburcio Montiel 24), a block from Casa Gilardi, does tacos on native-corn tortillas with Mexican wine.

7. Casa del Tiempo

Gral. Pedro Antonio de los Santos 84 · Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00 · free (check events)

Walk about seven minutes south-east, past Comal Oculto. This mansion was built in 1870 and first lived in by the widow of Miguel Miramón, the conservative president shot with Maximilian in 1867, and later by the minister Ezequiel Padilla. The UAM university bought it in 1997 and uses it for exhibitions and workshops.

Coffee break: Espressopolitan is across the street (Gral. Pedro Antonio de los Santos 89) for Chemex and home cooking, and Woom Café (Gral. Antonio León 21) has specialty coffee with rotating beans (brown circles on the map). Or wait five minutes for Marne Panadería (Gob. Ignacio Esteva 35, Mon–Fri 8:00–21:00, Sat–Sun 9:00–21:00), right on the way to the Ermita (gold circle on the map). Conchas, cinnamon rolls and a good flat white. There is often a line for tables, and it is not cheap.

8. Edificio Ermita

Edificio Ermita
Edificio Ermita. Photo: [3]

Av. Revolución 23, at Av. Jalisco · exterior and ground-floor shops · free

Walk south, about eight minutes, to where Revolución and Jalisco split. Near Marne, at Gral. José Morán 52, is the parish church of San Miguel Arcángel, the saint the colonia is named for. Juan Segura’s triangular Art Deco block, begun in 1929, is usually called the city’s first skyscraper: seven floors and 32 meters. It held 78 apartments, shops and a 2,400-seat cinema, the Hipódromo Condesa (1936), later a theater that closed in 2017. Spanish Civil War exiles lived upstairs, among them Rafael Alberti. The “Diego Rivera” on the drain covers is probably the foundry owner, not the painter.

The walk, part 2: Parque Lira to the Candelaria

The second half is Tacubaya. There is the old estate park, two colonial buildings, the market, the transport hub and the 16th-century church.

9. Parque Lira

Parque Lira
Parque Lira. Photo: [4]

Av. Parque Lira · open daily · free

From the Ermita, walk about ten minutes west to Avenida Parque Lira. This was the 18th-century estate of Vicente Lira, later the garden of the Lira Mora textile family; the entrance arch is by Francesco Saverio Cavallari. Lázaro Cárdenas expropriated it in 1937. Now it has big trees, a skate park and the borough offices in the Casa Amarilla. Parts are scruffy. Leave by the southwest side.

10. Museo Nacional de la Cartografía

Museo Nacional de la Cartografía
Museo Nacional de la Cartografía. Photo: [5]

Av. Observatorio 94 · Tue–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun 10:00–16:00 · free (some listings say 60 pesos)

A baroque church stuck between highway ramps. Dieguino friars built San José in 1686; the army took it over in 1843, and the Defense ministry made it a map museum in the 1990s. Colonial maps of New Spain, old surveying instruments, labels in English. Follow the signs from the footbridge; it is about seven minutes from the park.

Across the Periférico at Av. Observatorio 192 is the old Arzobispado, now the weather service. It is not a museum.

11. Museo Casa de la Bola

[Museo Casa de la Bola](https://museoshaghenbeck.mx): Av. Parque Lira 136 · guided visits by appointment, Mon–Fri and Sun, closed Sat · 50–60 pesos (~3 USD)

Walk back east, about seven minutes. This is the oldest house in the area, once an estate making olive oil and pulque. Its first known owner, in 1616, was the inquisitor Francisco Bazán Albornoz. The collector Antonio Haghenbeck bought it in the 1940s and filled 13 rooms with colonial and European furniture and paintings; a foundation has run it since he died in 1991. Book about a week ahead. No photos inside; the garden is fine. Nobody knows where “La Bola” comes from.

12. Mercado Cartagena

Arquitecto Luis Ruiz 175 · daily 8:00–20:00

Walk about five minutes south. The market opened on 22 July 1957, after the old La Paz market was knocked down to enlarge Parque Lira. A whole block of tomatoes and phone cases, with cheap fondas on the west side.

13. Alameda de Tacubaya and Metro Tacubaya

Alameda de Tacubaya and Metro Tacubaya
Alameda de Tacubaya and Metro Tacubaya. Photo: [6]

Av. Revolución · open space, free

Walk about eight minutes south-east to Avenida Revolución. Lines 1, 7 and 9 meet here, plus Metrobús Line 2 and what feels like every bus in the west of the city. The Alameda is a small, tired park whose obelisk honors the martyrs of 1859; next door is a school in Justo Sierra’s old house. This is the roughest bit of the walk. Keep moving.

14. Parroquia de la Candelaria

Parroquia de la Candelaria
Parroquia de la Candelaria. Photo: [7]

Mártires de la Conquista 65 · usually mornings (Google lists Mon–Fri 9:00–13:00); check hours · free

Cross Revolución to the only 16th-century Dominican convent left in the city. The date 1590 is carved into the walls. There is a big tree-filled atrium, an open chapel and a cloister with inscriptions naming the villages that helped build it. Viceroy José de Iturrigaray is buried inside. Use the side entrance on Mártires de la Conquista. This is the end of the walk. Get a taxi home, or take the Metro next door.

Coffee, food and drink

For coffee, Marne or Woom; for lunch, Comal Oculto or barbacoa at El Chorrito; for the evening, a glass at Brutal.

Place What Where
Marne Panadería Bakery, coffee, breakfast Gob. Ignacio Esteva 35, between stops 7 and 8
Woom Café Specialty coffee, rotating beans Gral. Antonio León 21, near stop 7
Deli Lou Baguettes, cakes, coffee Gob. Gregorio V. Gelati 78, near stop 4
La Milla Café and bakery, opens 7:00 Gral. Francisco Molinos del Campo 19, near stop 4
Espressopolitan Coffee, Chemex, home cooking Gral. Pedro Antonio de los Santos 89, across from stop 7
Comal Oculto Bib Gourmand antojitos off the comal Gob. Protasio Tagle 66A, between stops 6 and 7
Mercado El Chorrito Barbacoa, juices, set lunch Stop 3
Barrón Mexican breakfast and lunch Gral. Juan Cano 64, near stop 4
Milpa Tacos on native-corn tortillas, Mexican wine Gob. Tiburcio Montiel 24, near stop 6
Papagayo Breakfast, hotcakes, wine Gob. Ignacio Esteva 51B, next to Marne
Brutal Vinata de Barrio Wine bar and shop Gral. Juan Cano 42, near stop 6
El Mirador de Chapultepec Old cantina in a mansion Av. Chapultepec 606, a detour north

If you just want a familiar cup, the chains sit at the edges of the route:

Shops worth the detour

San Miguel Chapultepec has no shopping street; the good shops are tucked between houses.

Which day to walk

A Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday gets you the most; Sunday and Monday the least. Only the stops with limited days are listed below.

Stop Mon Tue–Fri Sat Sun
1 LABOR Closed Open (Fri until 15:00) Until 15:00 Closed
2 Casa Barragán Tours Tours Tours Closed
4 Kurimanzutto Closed Open (Fri until 16:00) Until 16:00 Closed
5 Galería de Arte Mexicano Open Open (Fri until 14:00) Closed Closed
6 Casa Gilardi Mornings Mornings Closed Closed
7 Casa del Tiempo Open Open Closed Closed
10 Cartography museum Closed Open Open Until 16:00
11 Casa de la Bola By appointment By appointment Closed By appointment

On a Saturday, see Barragán, the Cartography museum and Kurimanzutto, then eat at El Chorrito or Comal Oculto. Comal Oculto is closed on Mondays.

Keep walking

This walk borders three other areas, so you can carry on.

North: Chapultepec Park. From the start, the Complejo Cultural Los Pinos, the former presidential residence, is a few minutes’ walk north on Calzada Molino del Rey (Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, free). The 1847 battlefield of Molino del Rey is right there.

East: Condesa. From the Edificio Ermita, walk east along Avenida Benjamín Franklin. Or, from Casa del Tiempo, walk two blocks east on Pedro Antonio de los Santos, past Metro Juanacatlán, and cross the Circuito Interior into Hipódromo Condesa and Parque México.

South: Escandón. Beyond Tacubaya, Escandón has more Art Deco by Juan Segura, starting with his Conjunto Isabel at Avenida Revolución 121.

About the author and where to stay

Brian has lived in Roma Norte for about five years and writes the See Mexico City guides. He speaks seven languages and still gets lost on purpose.

When you visit, stay with us at Penthouse El Cielo de Roma in Roma Norte.

Photo credits

Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under the licenses shown. Numbers match the captions.

  1. Luis Barragan House exterior 02.jpg, ,
  2. Casa gilardi.jpg, ,
  3. Edificio Ermita.jpg, ,
  4. Parque Lira – Arco de Entrada (Francesco Saverio Cavallari).jpg, ,
  5. Museo Nacional de la Cartografía 21.JPG, ,
  6. Metro Tacubaya.jpg, ,
  7. Parroquia y Antiguo Convento de la Purificación de la Candelaria Arcos del Claustro.JPG, ,

Map: drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License.

Sources

Hours and prices checked October 2026; confirm before you go.