Castillo de Chapultepec

Chapultepec Castle sits on top of the hill of Chapultepec, at the entrance to the city's great forest park, and it has had more lives than almost any building in Mexico. It was begun in 1785 as a country retreat for the viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez, who died the following year. It later became the military college, and on 13 September 1847 young cadets remembered as the Niños Héroes died defending it against United States troops. Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota made it their residence in the 1860s, and from 1882 it was the presidential residence until Lázaro Cárdenas moved out. In 1939 he decreed that it should become the National Museum of History, which opened to the public in 1944.

The museum's galleries trace Mexican history from the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 through the colonial period, Independence and the Reform to the Revolution. Among the murals are Juan O'Gorman's "Retablo de la Independencia" and Jorge González Camarena's "La fusión de dos culturas", and a mural to the Niños Héroes covers the ceiling above the main entrance. The collection runs to more than 100,000 objects.

The upper part of the castle, the alcázar, is where most visitors linger. Its rooms are furnished to recreate the imperial years, including Carlota's bedroom and the Malachite Room, and the upper floor shows the rooms used by Porfirio Díaz and his wife Carmen Romero. A hallway lined with stained glass, the lion staircase and the terraces with their roof garden complete the visit. The terraces look down the length of Paseo de la Reforma, the avenue Maximilian had built to connect the castle with the city centre, and the city's tourism office calls it one of the best viewpoints in Mexico City.

The museum is open from 9:00 to 17:00, Tuesday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays; the garden and the old observatory keep the same hours. The castle stands at 2,325 metres above sea level on top of its hill, so expect an uphill walk from the forest below and allow two hours in total. The museum also hosts lectures, concerts and temporary exhibitions.

The Monument to the Niños Héroes is in the same part of the forest, and the city's tourism office lists the Museo de Historia Natural as its nearest neighbour. The Museo Nacional de Antropología is in the same first section of Chapultepec, making it easy to fill a whole day in the forest with history and archaeology.