Gran Hotel Ciudad de México

This hotel is an architectural treasure located in the heart of the city, where mysticism and modernity converge throughout the streets.

Guest can choose between staying in a room with view to Zócalo or to the hotel’s garden. Every detail is cherished in this historical landmark where rooms are specially equipped to welcome every guest or family.

In order to make the most of their stay, guests can enjoy a nice meal in the gourmet restaurant Terraza Gran Hotel, which is always innovating with Mexican fusion dishes. Also, guests can organize cultural events or work meetings in a warm and full of history environment.

The building. It was not born a hotel: it opened in 1899 as El Centro Mercantil, a department store of European goods inaugurated by Porfirio Díaz, and ran that way until 1958. It became a hotel around 1968, for the Olympic Games, and after the 2003–2005 refurbishment ended up with sixty rooms and its present name. It is the finest Art Nouveau interior still standing in the Centro.

The stained glass. What brings people here is the stained-glass ceiling over the lobby, made by the French artist Jacques Grüber and completed in 1908 in the Parisian Art Nouveau idiom of the time. Below it are the original wrought-iron lifts and the tiers of galleries that once looked down into the shop floor; the monumental staircase, by contrast, was demolished in the 1960s.

The terrace. A restaurant with a terrace operates on the upper floors, looking straight onto the Zócalo, the National Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral — one of the few vantage points at that height in the Centro. It serves non-guests too; book ahead, especially for weekend breakfast and for 15 September, when the square is closed for the Grito.

Getting there. The address is 16 de Septiembre 82, two blocks from the Zócalo. Zócalo-Tenochtitlan station on metro Line 2 is the closest, with Allende and Isabel la Católica also within walking distance. The whole area is pedestrianised or traffic-restricted, so arriving by car is the worst option.