The second most important square downtown (a few blocks north of the Zocalo) is Santo Domingo Plaza. It played an important economic, religious, political, commercial and social role in the development of the Spanish city of the Viceroys. Santo Domingo Plaza and the adjacent Plaza of Autonomy remain a vibrant backdrop to the rows of public scribes and printing shops that still line the street. We’ll visit the church which gives the plaza its name (stopping at an unusual chapel dedicated to Our Lord of the Rebozo or the Shawl), walk through what was once the Palace of the Inquisition, which eventually became the National University’s College of Medicine and today is the Museum of Medicine which narrates the history of this science in Mexico from prehispanic times til today. From there, we will heading over to the Women’s Museum, the only museum dedicated to this gender in the country, run by the National University. If possible, we will stop at Diego Rivera’s famous murals in the Ministry of Public Education. This out-of-the-way, often overlooked sector of downtown is full of numerous small, lesser-known museums and sites that are well worth exploring.
This visit runs approximately three hours.