13 Best Sights in Roma, Mexico City

Set within a typical-looking Roma house with an early 20th-century stone facade, Galería OMR has been a leader in the city's contemporary arts scene since it opened in 1983. It contains dramatic, light-filled exhibit spaces on two levels as well as an art library, a bougainvillea-filled courtyard, and a roof-deck with grand views of the neighborhood. The gallery also has a strong presence in international art fairs and art magazines.

In Doctores just a block from Roma and Avenida Álvaro Obregón, this historic textile factory has been transformed into a collaborative art and design space that serves as both showcase and incubator. From the street you'd hardly know it was here—you need to knock on the door to gain entry. But the public is welcome to drop in, order a well-crafted latte from the cool café (which is also an inviting spot to work on your laptop), check out the bookstore specializing in titles about design, and explore the building's unique architecture. Many of the galleries and studios inside sell their works to the public, but Laguna also hosts a wide range of cultural activities, including dance classes, art workshops, design expos, and various lectures. Above all else it offers visitors a terrific opportunity to interact with the city's constantly evolving creative scene.

Perhaps the most picturesque—and oft-photographed—of Roma's several public squares, this large rectangular plaza was laid out as part of the neighborhood's formal development into an upper-class residential district in 1903. Near the neighborhood's northern border and the more frenetic Gloria de los Insurgentes traffic circle, the Plaza attracts dog walkers, joggers, shoppers, and passersby of all stripes. The fountain, anchored by a bronze replica of Michelangelo's David, is the square's social focal point, and you'll find a handful of inviting cafés and restaurants on its different sides, including Pigeon, Marmota, Sartoria, and Buna. Ornately detailed early 20th-century mansions fringe the plaza, the most famous being the redbrick Casa de las Brujas (Gouse of the Witches), so named for its soaring conical turret's resemblance to a witch's hat.

Before real estate developers established most of Roma as a fashionable residential neighborhood in the early 1900s, this small quadrant of narrow lanes thrived as an off-the-beaten-path village for centuries. Originally occupying one of the many small, low islands of massive Lake Texcoco, the area was inhabited by Mexica (aka Aztecs) well before the arrival of Spaniards. As the city and then Roma and neighboring Juárez and Doctores districts grew up around it, Romita retained a distinct—and decidedly more working-class—personality and independence. You can get some sense of what it might have looked like in the mid-20th century by watching Luis Buñuel's heart-wrenching 1950 film, Los Olvidados, which was filmed here. Romita's name is said to derive from its resemblance during the mid-1700s to a neighborhood in Rome, Italy, that was similarly rife at the time with large trees. To get a feel for the neighborhood, walk along one of its narrow lanes to Plaza Romita, a tranquil tree-shaded courtyard with park benches and a central fountain that's flanked on its eastern side by the small, 1530s Rectoria San Francisco Javier Church. The neighborhood's liveliest street, Real de Romita, has a few shops and cafés, including La Perla de la Roma, Veganísimo Loncheria, and Vocablo Café y Poesía; down another lane you'll find the headquarters of the acclaimed craft bewery, Cru Cru.

This prestigious gallery represents acclaimed artists like Emilio Rangel, known for his playful and sometimes erotic depictions of pop cultural icons like Miss Piggy and Elvis; Javier Marín—whose massive sculptures, such as Cabeza Vainilla (Vanilla Head) have been installed in a number of prominent spaces around the world; and about a dozen other diverse talents. The gallery itself occupies an imposing mansion whose interior has been given a striking, light-filled contemporary redesign. It's recommended that guests get in touch to make an appointment before visiting.

Roma's main east–west boulevard is wide and tree-lined, with a central promenade that's studded with sculptures and fountains. With dozens of restaurants, bars, cafés, and shops lining either side, Álvaro Obregón is an ideal place to stroll and take in occasional cultural exhibitions and events like classic car shows and public art displays.

Inside this imposing early 20th-century mansion and its connected buildings, artists are nurtured and browsers are welcomed in the airy exhibition spaces, a library, a bookstore, a wide range of courses, a café, and a swanky restaurant called Nueve Nueve that serves upmarket contemporary Mexican and international cuisine. All of the spaces surround a beautiful courtyard, and the restaurant—set inside a modern glass-walled addition—offers particularly nice views.

This striking fountain anchors the busy traffic circle in Roma Norte's northwestern quadrant, an exact copy of the neoclassical Plaza de Cibeles fountain found in Madrid (which depicts the Roman goddess of fertility, Cybele, in a carriage pulled by lions). The surrounding traffic circle is officially called Plaza Villa de Madrid, although most locals just called it Plaza Cibeles. Six streets intersect here, and there's a lively flea market, Mercado Cibeles, held on weekends on the narrow lane running southeast to Avenida Insurgentes (Calle El Oro). There are a number of prominent restaurants on or within a few steps of the circle, including the famously sceney seafood eatery, Contramar, and branches of the popular coffee-pizza eateries, Cancino and La Ventanita, which have large swaths of sidewalk tables curving around the northwestern arc of the circle.

This eco-minded organic urban farm is one of the more unusual spaces in the city center—it occupies an expansive corner lot beside Roma Sur's attractive, wooded Jardín Ramón López Velarde Park. Built largely from repurposed materials, the farm is easy to spot from the giant temple-like structure by its entrance, made up of hundreds of blue plastic water bottles with a palm tree growing through the center. The center offers workshops and classes open to the public on sustainability, recycling, organic and hydroponic gardening, yoga, temazcal, dance, jewelry-making, slow-food cooking, and much more. And there are regular eco-markets featuring a wide range of sustainable products. Visitors are welcome to saunter around the property, admiring the eclectic artwork, patting the many friendly and free-ranging cats (most of which are up for adoption through the farm), and spotting a bounty of potted plants and leafy gardens.

An essential stop on any gallery stroll through Roma, MAIA occupies part of one of the more striking mansions on elegant Calle Colima, the Porfirian-era Casa Basalta, with exhibition spaces connected by a long, columned veranda. The gallery represents a mix of up-and-coming and more established contemporary talents, and the shows here make great use of the dramatic architecture. Casa Basalta also houses a handful of other businesses, including a few small restaurants, an ice cream shop, and a couple of clothing boutiques. 

Part of Carlos Slim's growing collection of cultural holdings that operate—always with free admission—under the aegis of Soumaya Museum, this classic late 19th-century Porfirian mansion was formerly owned by the late historian and art collector Guillermo Tovar de Teresa. The grand, if imposingly formal, home is filled with priceless antiques and artwork, including an important painting of Archangel San Rafael by noted religious painter Miguel Cabrera, fine porcelain and glassworks from both Europe and Spanish Colonial Mexico, and Tovar de Teresa's huge library of historic books. Walking amid the Oriental rugs, gilt-framed mirrors and paintings, and sweeping drapes give a nice sense of what it might have felt like to live in one of the city's grandest homes, but the real treat here is visiting the romantic, cloistered garden, with its huge ferns, flowering plants, and curving pathways—it's a peaceful little green treasure in the heart of a bustling neighborhood.

Designed around the same time and in a somewhat similar style to Plaza Río de Janeiro, which is a few blocks due north, this stately plaza centered on an elliptical reflecting pool and fountain is one of the most enchanting spots in Roma to sit with a cup of coffee and soak up the streetscape. Art installations are regularly set up around the pool's tree-shaded perimeter, and the streets flanking the eastern and western sides of the plaza contain several imposing Porfirian mansions, some of which now house restaurants and cafés. If you'd rather frequent a more locally grown business than the ubiquitous, albeit attractive, Starbucks on the northwest corner, try Cafe Toscano, at the southwest end of the plaza, which makes a nice break for coffee and cake or a glass of wine and a sandwich. And across the street, Porco Rosso, the U.S.-style barbecue joint with several locations around the city, is a fun place to eat and socialize.