Mexico City’s Zócalo is not simply a large open plaza between famous buildings. It is the civic centre of a city built over older capitals, and its present surface conceals a history of markets, political power, religious institutions and archaeological discovery. Its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución; “Zócalo” is the name most residents and visitors use. To understand the square, it helps to look beyond the flag at its centre and read the surrounding buildings as evidence of successive urban eras.
The square lies within the historic core of Mexico City, a landscape reshaped after the Spanish conquest of the Mexica capital, Tenochtitlan. The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) explains that the city’s early Spanish urban plan concentrated civic and religious power in buildings around the old market plaza, the area of today’s Zócalo. The Metropolitan Cathedral was built on the north side, facing south toward the square, while other institutions formed the political centre around it.
