Toluca Travel Guide

The Museo de Culturas Populares in Toluca focuses on folk and traditional craft of central Mexico, especially the State of Mexico — masks, festival dress, pottery, paper art and everyday objects. Often organised by rotating thematic shows of regional crafts, it presents 'living tradition' rather than static display.

The Cosmovitral Jardín Botánico in Toluca occupies what was built in 1910 as an Art Nouveau municipal market, converted into a botanical garden in 1980. The conversion, directed by the artist Leopoldo Flores, filled the existing steel-and-glass envelope with some seventy stained-glass panels covering over three thousand square metres on the theme of humanity and the cosmos; the Hombre Sol at the southern end is the visual core of the whole scheme. The colours shift with the hour, and the planting inside takes on a distinctive cast under the tinted light.