Alameda de Tacubaya

The Alameda de Tacubaya is a historical city park. A famous primary school bordering the park’s south side is the former home of Justo Sierra (1848–1912) one of the last of the infamous Cientificos of the Porfiriato period. He’s credited with promoting and working to establish the National University of Mexico, (today’s UNAM). Sierra is also well-remembered as a liberal educator whose books were read well into the 20th century.

The school building’s scale lends to the grandeur of the park’s past. The Alameda here is often combined, at least in a mental geography, with the atrium of the Candelaria Church. This is directly across Avenida Revolucíon on the park’s east side. Across the same street is the old ayuntamiento, the government administration building, for the city and municipality of Tacubaya.

• The obelisk at the center of the Alameda is dedicated to the “Martyrs of Tacubaya.” These were a group of 53 liberal military and civilians executed after the Battle of Tacubaya by the winning Conservative General. They were killed on April 11, 1859.
• The executions took place outside the Tacubaya Archbishop’s palace. This would later become the National Observatory for which the neighborhood, and metro station, are still known.
• Today, the palace building houses the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History. 
• The Martyrs were thus called during the Presidency of Benito Juárez, and the Alameda dates back to this time. A “Republican Garden,” as one of the best-known historians of Tacubaya has called it, the Alameda was intended as an atrium without a temple, centering only on itself.

The Alameda de Tacubaya is also home to the busts of two boxers. Javier Solís, a one-time idol of Tacubaya, and Finito López.