Historical Archive of Mexico City

The colonial-era mansion that was inhabited by the Counts Heras and Soto now shelters Mexico City’s recorded heritage going back to 1524. 

Documents, texts, diagrams, books, and highly valuable old volumes are restored and preserved in the historical archive every day. 

The collection held here contains 80 thousand blueprints of the city—some show drainage and drinking water, others refer to buildings from the colonial period. There are documents from the first hospitals recording epidemics, records from the time of the Revolution, administrative and judicial documents, and texts covering a range of celebrations and traditions. Don’t miss seeing the head of the Ángel de la Independencia statue. After it fell off during the 1957 earthquake, it came to be exhibited here. Outside, on the corner of República de Chile and Donceles streets, take time to admire the building’s limestone ornamentation that shows a child carrying a basket of fruit below a lion surrounded by floral decorations.