Reforma Avenue Images of Reforma Avenue / Zones of Mexico City

Paseo de la Reforma is the most important and beautiful avenue in the city. It’s also one of the most famous in the world, due to the important buildings and monuments that stand along it, like the Mexican Stock-Market or the world-renowned Angel of Independence.

Paseo de la Reforma was planed by the Emperor Maximiliano to shorten the distance between Chapultepec Castle and the National Palace, this is the reason why this important avenue was traced inspired in the models of some European cities like Paris’ Champs-Elysées. Later governments improved the avenue by planting trees, growing gardens and installing urban furniture like benches and pedestals in which sculptures of the main heroes of each state of the country would stand, for which 16 states sent the effigies of its two most outstanding patriots.

But it wasn’t until Porfirio Díaz’s time in office that the avenue dressed up to commemorate the 100th anniversary of México’s Independence. This is the reason why, apart from the diverse constructions that were developed in the city like the Palace of Fine Arts or the Mail Palace, various monuments were erected in Paseo de la Reforma which, with time, would become the city’s symbols, just like the Angel of Independence. Simultaneously, the wealthiest families in the city began to construct luxurious small palaces that enormously increased the land value in the area. With the passing years, and mostly in the second part of the 20th Century, Paseo de la Reforma witnessed the disappearance of these constructions: they were being replaced by modern office buildings and luxury hotels, which transformed the area into the financial centre of Mexico City.

Paseo de la Reforma is the most famous avenue in México due to its profound cultural significance, fueled by the history of the avenue itself and the monuments that stand along it; like the Monument to Christopher Columbus, the Monument to Cuauhtémoc and the Fountain of Diana the Huntress, in addition to the already mentioned Angel of Independence. Also by the fact that this avenue houses world-class hotels, the main financial groups in México and Latin America, and some of the most representative buildings of México City, like the Mexican Stock-Market and the Torre Mayor, the highest building in Latinamerica.

Places of interest in this area:

  • Angel of Independence
  • Monument to Cuauhtémoc
  • Monument to Christopher Columbus
  • Fountain of Diana the Huntress

Continue reading here: Angel of Independence

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