Palace of Iturbide

Listen first. Madero Street carries a steady murmur of footsteps, street musicians and shop doors opening and closing. Then you look up, and a tall wall of carved grey stone rises above the crowd. Its arched doorway is so high that a rider on horseback could pass through without bowing his head. This is the Palace of Iturbide, one of the most theatrical homes ever built in colonial Mexico City.

The building belongs to the late eighteenth century, the final decades of Spanish rule. Mexico City was then the capital of New Spain, the viceroyalty that Spain governed across much of North and Central America. Silver from Mexican mines had made a small group of families extraordinarily rich. Those families competed for prestige, and one of their favourite ways to compete was architecture. A grand house on a main street showed everyone exactly who you were.

This palace was commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, the Count of San Mateo de Valparaíso. According to the story most often told, he built it as a wedding gift for his daughter. She married into another titled family, the Marquis of Moncada. So the house began as a statement about marriage, inheritance and status. It was meant to impress the city, not to be quiet or modest.

The design is usually credited to Francisco Antonio de Guerrero y Torres, one of the leading architects of late colonial Mexico City. His work mixes Spanish baroque drama with local materials and local taste. Baroque, in simple terms, is a style that loves movement, rich ornament and strong contrasts of light and shadow. Here you can see that style applied to a private home rather than a church.

Now look again at the façade. Notice how tall and narrow it feels compared with the buildings beside it. The palace has several levels, including a mezzanine, a low in-between floor that was often used for offices or servants. The vertical emphasis is deliberate. It pulls your eye upward, past the balconies and the carved stone frames, toward the roofline. On a street of serious, square buildings, this house was designed to stand out.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. Look at the corners and edges of the upper levels. The stonework becomes busier and more decorative as it climbs, almost like the crown on a cake. The balconies have iron railings, and the windows sit inside heavy carved surrounds. Every surface is working to catch light. In the late afternoon, shadows gather in the carvings and the whole façade seems deeper than it really is.

The name on everyone's lips today, though, is not the count. It is Agustín de Iturbide. He was a military officer who first fought for the Spanish crown and then changed sides. In 1821 he helped bring Mexico to independence from Spain. For a brief moment he was the most powerful man in the new country, and he lived in this very building.

That brings us to the first real surprise. In 1822, while Iturbide was living here, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico. Yes, an emperor. Many people in the new nation wanted a monarchy, and Iturbide took the crown as Agustín the First. Crowds gathered on this street in celebration. For a short time, this private palace became the centre of an imperial court.

The empire did not last. Opposition grew quickly, and within about a year Iturbide gave up the throne and left the country. He later returned to Mexico and was executed. His reign was short, but his name stayed attached to the house. That is why a building commissioned by a colonial count now carries the name of a fallen emperor.

The second surprise is what happened next. In the nineteenth century the palace became a hotel, and for many years travellers slept behind this grand stone front. Over time the building also housed shops, offices and other businesses. Rooms were divided, decoration was changed, and the original grandeur faded. Like many old houses in this district, it simply adapted to whatever the city needed.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the building was acquired by the Mexican bank Banamex. The bank carried out a major restoration, bringing back much of the original structure and the open courtyard. Today it is known as the Palacio de Cultura Citibanamex, a cultural centre. It hosts rotating exhibitions, often of Mexican art, design and folk craft. The exhibitions change, so what you find inside depends on the season.

If you step through the great doorway, the noise of the street drops away. You enter a central courtyard surrounded by arcades, rows of arches resting on slender columns. Above, the upper galleries look down into the open space. In colonial houses, the courtyard was the heart of daily life. Carriages entered, servants crossed, and the family could watch from the floors above. Stand in the middle and turn slowly to see how every room faces inward.

The location matters too. Madero Street links the main square, the Zócalo, with the area near the Palace of Fine Arts. It is one of the oldest routes in the city and is now a pedestrian street. Within a few minutes' walk you will find colonial churches, the House of Tiles, and old mansions converted into shops and cafés. This palace is one chapter in a long street of stone stories.

Before you move on, take one more look at that towering doorway. A count built it to celebrate a marriage. An emperor greeted crowds from it. Hotel guests passed through it with their luggage. Now people with shopping bags and phones walk past without a second glance. Listen to the street again, and notice how the old stone still holds the light above all that movement.