Nacional Monte de Piedad

What it is. The Nacional Monte de Piedad is the country's institutional pawnshop, founded in 1775 by the mining magnate Pedro Romero de Terreros as a charitable lending house: it offered loans against collateral at low interest, with the surplus going to welfare. Two and a half centuries later it still operates that way, as a non-profit with branches across Mexico, and it remains part of everyday life rather than a museum piece.

The building and the ground it stands on. The headquarters occupies the block on the west side of the Zócalo, facing the Cathedral. This is the site of the palace of Axayácatl, the Mexica ruler, where Cortés and his men were lodged in 1519 —so the foundations belong to one of the most consequential addresses in the Americas. The current building is colonial and 19th-century in parts, and its courtyard is worth stepping into.

What a visitor sees. The ground floor works as a pawnshop: counters, valuation windows and queues. The institution also holds periodic auctions of unredeemed items —jewellery, watches, instruments— which are open to the public and are the real curiosity for visitors. There is no admission charge for walking into the lobby.

Getting there. On the Zócalo, beside the Cathedral. Zócalo-Tenochtitlan station on metro Line 2 opens onto the square, and the Zócalo, Templo Mayor and Cathedral are all within a few metres.