Source: WTL digital photograph© 2008 in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City.
Comments: This Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes) is the Mexico City's main opera house and concert hall. It is famous for the exquisite art nouveau (modern art) exterior of Italian white marble, for the world class programs it sponsoprs, and for the murals on the second and third floors by José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo. Construction began in 1904 during the dictatorial and Euro-centric regime of General Porfirio Díaz. The architect was Adamo Boari, an Italian expert in the modern theater design and technology for the time. Due to problems relating to the fact that most of Mexico City is built on fill dirt in ancient Lake Texcoco, and due to the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), construction was not completed until 1934. Boarti left the country in 1916, and construction was completed under the Mexican architect, Federico Mariscal, who was a student of Boari's.
For an interior view of Bellas Artes, click on the right arrow. To continue the Mexico City slide show, click on Mexico City 12.
Humanities topic: Compare and contrast this grand theater with those in Havana, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro.