Chapultepec Castle, Castle and history museum in Chapultepec, Mexico City, Mexico
Chapultepec Castle is a palace and history museum atop Chapultepec Hill in Mexico City, Mexico, combining neoclassical and Gothic Revival design elements. The complex includes multiple wings with exhibition rooms, terraces overlooking the city, and a wooded slope descending toward the surrounding park.
The fortress was originally built as a summer residence for the viceroy and later transformed into an imperial palace for Maximilian I before serving as a presidential palace. After its use by presidents ended, the building was converted into the National Museum of History and opened to the public.
The name Chapultepec comes from Nahuatl chapoltepēc, "on the hill of the grasshopper". The castle is one of only two royal palaces in North America inhabited by monarchs, alongside the Iturbide Palace. Emperor Maximilian brought European furniture and objets d'art from Europe, exhibited here today, and botanist Wilhelm Knechtel created the roof garden.
The museum opens Tuesday through Sunday and offers guided tours in several languages along with educational programs for school groups. Access to the entrance involves a paved path or a small tourist train departing from the park entrance.
The balcony of Maximilian's bedroom offers the same view over the city that the emperor himself saw each morning. In the basement vaults, the original storage rooms and kitchens from the viceregal period remain accessible to the public.
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