The oldest building in Monterrey, the baroque episcopal palace of 1787, houses the most complete museum of the history of the state and region, from the earliest times up to industrialization. It covers the people, the artists, the national heroes, invaders, eminent citizens and entrepreneurs.

The history and culture of the San Luis Potosí region and its predecessors: the Mesoamerican and Huasteca cultures, the city of Tamtoc, the Viceroyalty, Independence, the wars of the nineteenth century, the period of Porfirio Díaz and the Revolution: these are all exhibited in a splendid building dating from 1591 which incorporates the beautiful Aranzazu chapel.

First established in 1886 in a palace in the city of Morelia, the museum houses a splendid collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts, assembled by the institution’s first director, Nicolás León, as well as plates of rare codices, maps, ancient items of clothing and objects of historic importance such as the table where the Constitution of Apatzingán was signed.

An impressive construction notable for the church’s remarkable Mudejar-style coffered ceiling made with gilded wood. The museum preserves the pre-Hispanic and viceregal history of Tlaxcala—a vital ally for the Conquistadors—along with displays of nineteenth and twentieth-century luxury objects and tools.

A majestic Porfirian (late nineteenth-century building) holds a valuable collection of Maya pieces (some are on loan to the State Museum in Mérida), and hosts temporary exhibitions, lectures, concerts and workshops about the ancient and modern indigenous peoples of Mexico.

The INAH Regional Museum for the state is in an old prison building of the Porfiriato in Hermosillo, dating to 1908. Its purpose is to display the archeology, history and culture of the region in its 18 permanent and five temporary exhibition galleries.

A colonial building, the Former Monastery of San Francisco is home to Querétaro’s collection of archeology, history, culture and ethnology. It focuses on the Otomi and Chichimeca ethnic groups, the multi-coloured society of the viceregal period, and the restless society of the early independence period.

With its adjoining monastery, the church is considered one of the finest Baroque gems of the viceregal period. Both were built by the Dominicans with indigenous labor during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The museum has fine examples of the pre-Hispanic, religious, romantic and contemporary art of Oaxaca. There is also an important ethnobotanical garden, an old library and a newspaper and periodicals library.

A modern building houses a vast collection about the life and culture of the state. Archeology, history (in the nineteenth century Puebla was laid siege ten times), academic culture, popular culture, customs, dances and a great variety of arts and crafts.

One of the most outstanding colonial buildings in Zacatecas, it contains an excellent collection of the greatest painters of the period. Complemented by a fine collection of academic and popular sculptures of the religious art of New Spain.