Monument to the Revolution
The Monument to the Revolution commemorates the Mexican Revolution. This iconic monument is located on Plaza de la República, which crosses at the heart of the major thoroughfares Paseo de la Reforma and Avenida de los Insurgentes.
The building was initially planned as the Federal Legislative Palace during the regime of Porfirio Díaz and “was intended as the unequaled monument to Porfirian glory.” Considered the tallest triumphal arch in the world, it stands 67 m in height.
The project was planned in 1897, and the government allocated 5 million pesos for it. Since the building was a major public project, there was a competition to design it, ultimately won by a Frenchman, Émile Bénard.
The government’s selection of a Frenchman as an architect, who produced a neoclassical design with “characteristic touches of the French renaissance”, points to government officials’ aim to demonstrate Mexico’s rightful place as an advanced nation.
Díaz laid the first stone in 1910 during the centennial celebrations of Independence, when Díaz also inaugurated the Monument to Mexican Independence (“The Angel”). Rather than local Mexican materials used in the stone façade, the design called for Italian marble and Norwegian granite.
Although the Díaz regime was ousted in May 1911, President Francisco I. Madero, “the Apostle of Democracy,” continued the legislative building’s construction until 1912, when the money ran out.
The structure remained unfinished until 1938 and was completed during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas.
The open building was designed by Carlos Obregón Santacilia in an eclectic Art Deco and Mexican socialist realism style, over the existing cupola structure of the Palacio Legislativo Federal (Federal Legislative Palace).
Oliverio Martínez designed a stone sculpture for the structure, with Francisco Zúñiga as one of his assistants.
The structure also functions as a mausoleum for the heroes of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, and Francisco I. Madero, Plutarco Elías Calles, Venustiano Carranza, and Lázaro Cárdenas.
Revolutionary general Emiliano Zapata is not buried in the monument, but in Cuautla, Morelos. The Zapata family has resisted the Mexican government’s efforts to relocate Zapata’s remains to the monument.
How to get there?
Metro station Revolucion.
If you walking along the Paseo de la Reforma from Chapultepec to the Historic Center, then just take a left after the Roundabout of the Women Who Fight, formerly there was the Monument to Columbus (Columbus roundabout).
Live Webcam: Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City
Mexico City’s iconic monument in real-time.
Let us know if this article was useful for you
