Fonoteca Nacional

The Fonoteca Nacional occupies a seventeenth-century villa known as Casa de Alvarado. Its most striking feature is the bright yellow facade that stands out against the lush, manicured gardens surrounding the building. While legend long held that the Spanish conqueror Pedro de Alvarado built this house, records show it was constructed over a century after his death. The writer Octavio Paz spent his final years living here, and the property eventually became the home for Mexico's national sound archive.