Mexico Guide
Mexico City
Museo Anahuacalli
Address: Museo 150; Tren Ligero Xotepingo
Opening time: Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; M$45, ticket also valid for Museo Frida Kahlo
Website: www.anahuacallimuseo.org
The bizarre Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli was designed and built by Diego Rivera to house his huge collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts. Note that during restoration (due for completion in 2008), visits are limited to guided tours, which take place at 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm, 3.15pm, 4.15pm and (except on Fri) 5pm. It's an extraordinary blockish structure, started in 1933 and worked on sporadically until Rivera's death, then finished off by Juan O'Gorman and opened in 1963. Inspired by Maya and Aztec architecture, this sombre mass of black volcanic stone is approached through a courtyard reminiscent of a Maya ball-court. The exquisite objects in the collection form part of a thoroughly imaginative exhibit: one small chamber contains nothing but a series of Huehueteotls, all squatting grumpily under the weight of their braziers, and the studio has ball-player and animal displays.
The ground floor is devoted to objects from the main cultures of the Valley of México – Teotihuacán, Toltec and Aztec – which provided Rivera with an important part of his inspiration. On the middle floor, rooms devoted to the west of Mexico (arguably the best such collection in the country) surround the huge airy space that Rivera planned to use as a studio. It's been fitted out with portraits and sketches, including preliminary studies for Man in Control of the Universe, his massive mural in the Bellas Artes. On the top floor are more Aztec objects, along with pottery and small figures from Oaxaca and the Gulf coast. Up here you can also get out onto the rooftop terrace, from where there are magical views of Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl, both of which seem really close here, their snowy peaks glistening on less smoggy days.