Contemporary Art Museum
This museum should be part of a Monterrey sightseeing. Known by its acronym, MARCO, is located in downtown, facing the Macro Plaza and it is integrated to the landscape, where there are other important buildings such as the Cathedral and the Town Hall. It is inspired by the Mexican houses traditional style and it features a central patio, ornamented with a huge water mirror and two impressive spherical sculptures. The main entrance is presided by a spectacular sculpture with the shape of a stylized dove, created by the Mexican artist Juan Soriano.
The galleries are wide spaces that feature different proportions, shapes, and heights, highlighted by strategically located natural light sources, and are designed to allow the visitors to be permanently in touch with the exterior, the city and the central patio, without losing the focus on the magnificent works of art that are housed in the museum.
Monterrey Museum
Monterrey museums main goal is to show the best of arts to the community. In its room, more than 1,500 pieces of contemporary Latin American art can be observed, with emphasis in the Mexican arts. Through all its existence, the museum has managed to bring together one of the most important collections in Mexico, featuring several artistic expressions such as sculpture, painting, drawing, graphic design and photography. In the year 1992, it created the first Painting, Sculpture and Installation Biennial Exhibition in Monterrey, the first to be organized in the north of Mexico.
Mexican History Museum
This museum presents a sober, impressive, modernist construction, which can be accessed through a wide square. It is divided into 4 rooms, each one representing a distinct period of the Mexican history: The Old Mexico, The Colony, The 19th Century and The Modern Mexico.
Macro Plaza
The Macro Plaza (or Great Plaza) is certainly, the focal point in downtown. There, you will see the Commerce Lighthouse, which dominates the landscape and is the highest monument in Mexico. The Macro Plaza consists of a series of small squares joined together, with fountains, benches, trees and green areas and it is where the city's theater, the Town Hall and the Cathedral stand.
Alfa Planetarium
Created in the year 1978, this museum, which is a cylindrical shaped building inclined towards the North, was one of the pioneers in developing the concept of interactive museum. Its many activities and experiments areas amaze and amuse little kids as well as adults. It features a section called Illusion and Reason, where you can play with physics and astronomy and prove several scientific phenomena. It also has an aviary that houses exotic birds and an extensive collection of huge pre Hispanic archeological pieces which belong to different Ancient Mexicos cultures.
One of the biggest attractions of this center is the most complete astronomical observatory in the northeast of Mexico and allows the visitors to see the sky through a telescope; another one is the multi theater, which projects spectacular movies and features an hemispheric 9-inch screen that envelopes the viewers with its 180 degree vision, offering an impressive image and high fidelity sound.