It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución (El Zócalo).

Used and classified as a government building, the National Palace, with its red tezontle facade,[1] fills the entire east side of the Zócalo,[2] measuring over 200 metres (660 ft) long.

[2] The facade is bordered on the north and south by two towers and includes three main doorways, each of which lead to a different part of the building.

[1] Above the central doorway, facing the Zócalo, is the main balcony where just before 11pm on September 15, the president of Mexico gives the Grito de Dolores, in a ceremony to commemorate Mexican Independence.

Only the balustrade of this area has been remodeled, conserving the murals by Diego Rivera that adorn the main stairwell and the walls of the second floor.

The right-hand wall contains murals depicting pre-Hispanic Mexico and centers around the life of the Aztec god Quetzalcóatl.

Last, when he sacrifices his blood to give life to men, he returns to the sky having completed his earthly cycle.

[4] In the middle and largest panel, the Conquest is depicted with its ugliness, such as rape and torture, as well as priests defending the rights of the indigenous people.

The left-hand panel is dedicated to early and mid-20th century, criticizing the status quo and depicting a Marxist kind of utopia, featuring the persons of Plutarco Elías Calles, John D. Rockefeller, Harry Sinclair, William Durant, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Mellon as well as Karl Marx.

Peoples such as the Tarascos of Michoacán, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs of Oaxaca and the Huastecs of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí and Veracruz.

The National Palace also houses the main State Archives, with many historical documents, and the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, one of the largest and most important libraries in the country.

Leading to the Museum part of the complex, which used to be the Finance Ministry, is a statue of Benito Juárez by Miguel Noreña.

In the Finance Ministry patio is the Benito Juárez Room, where this president lived during the end of his term and where he died on July 18, 1872.

[5] The palace also held a chamber reserved for the "tlacxitlan" where a group of elders, presided over by the emperor himself, would settle disputes among the citizenry.

[6] Italian Capuchin friar Ilarione da Bergamo included a description of the viceregal palace in his travel narrative.

[7] During the tenure of viceroy Bernardo Gálvez, he sought a residence separate from the palace and plans for Chapultepec Castle were drawn up in 1785, to be constructed on a high point outside the core of the city.

During an uprising led by Valentín Gómez Farías against then-president Anastasio Bustamante, the southwest balustrade was seriously damaged during a siege lasting twelve days.

He also had Lorenzo de la Hidalga construct the grand marble staircase that is in the Patio of Honor in the southern wing, as well as having the public rooms roofed and furnished with paintings, candelabras, and chamber pots from Hollenbach, Austria and Sirres, France.

[5] In 1877, the Secretaría de Hacienda y Credito Público (Secretary of Internal Revenue and Public Credit), José Ives Limantour, as part of his overhaul of the department, moved their offices to the north wing, finishing in 1902.

[5] Between 1926 and 1929, the third floor was added during the term of President Plutarco Elías Calles by Alberto J. Pani, an engineer and then finance minister and designed by Augusto Petriccioli.

In the interior, a grand staircase of marble was installed in the central patio (where Diego Rivera would later paint The History of Mexico mural) and constructed stairs to the internal revenue department and the offices of the General Treasury in the north wing.

This statue was made with bronze from the cannons of the Conservative Army during the Reform War and from French projectiles from the Battle of Puebla.

[15][16][17][18] On March 6, 2024, protesters demonstrating in commemoration of the Iguala mass kidnapping in 2014 used a commandeered pickup truck to batter down the wooden doors of the palace before entering and getting expelled by security forces.

Parts of a wall and a basalt floor were found during recent renovations on the building that now houses the Museum of Culture, which adjoins the Palace on its north side.

It was part of a construction which is thought to have consisted of five interconnected buildings containing the emperor's office, chambers for children and several wives and even a zoo.

[1][20] On the webpage of past president Ernesto Zedillo, Carlos Fuentes calls the National Palace a "traveling and an immobile construction".

The original bell Father Hidalgo rang is here and the President himself gives the Grito de Dolores from its main balcony.

He also notes one such Independence Eve, in 1964, when General Charles de Gaulle, then-President of France, spoke to the crowd in Spanish from the Palace.

In April that same year, President Andres Manuel López Obrador declared the cats to be “living fixed assets,” the first time animals in Mexico have been awarded the title.

The measure, which is normally granted to tangible objects, requires the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit to provide permanent food and care for them in their lifetimes.