Palacio Postal - A Post Office Fit for a King

Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Mexico City: Centro Historico Walk, a free self-guided tour.

This may be the most beautiful post office you will ever buy a stamp in. Designed by the Italian architect Adamo Boari and opened in 1907, the Palacio Postal mixes styles freely, with Spanish Plateresque carving, Gothic tracery, Moorish touches and Art Nouveau metalwork, all wrapped in a pale, almost glowing stone. It has worked as a post office ever since.

Step inside, if it is open, and the nickname makes sense. Bronze and iron work cast in Florence, Italy, frames the windows and decorates the railings of the grand staircase, and old-fashioned service windows line the ground floor where people still mail letters.

The 1985 earthquake damaged the building badly, made worse by decades of heavy alterations, and a careful restoration in the 1990s followed Boari's surviving plans. Keep his name in mind: the same architect designed the Palacio de Bellas Artes across the street, and both buildings rose in the final years of the Porfirio Diaz era.

Getting here: Walk north two short blocks along Eje Central; the post office is on your right at the corner of Tacuba.

Did you know?: Until 2013 the upper floor of the post office housed a museum of Mexican naval history.

Photo op: From across Eje Central, frame the whole pale facade with its ornate lanterns and window frames.

More on Wikipedia: Palacio de Correos de Mexico · Adamo Boari

Palacio Postal - A Post Office Fit for a King

Stops on this tour