Oaxaca Historic Center | Self-Guided Audio Walking Tour

Your Experience

Oaxaca has almost never knocked a building down. It has changed what buildings are for. The Dominicans' convent became a cavalry barracks, then a car park, then a museum. Its parade ground became a botanical garden. A bookbinder's house became a shrine to the servant boy who slept there and grew up to be president. Even the plaza is a reassignment: the square the Spanish gridded in 1529 had been a Mexica garrison, posted to watch the Zapotecs from outside.

Twelve stops in a loop: the Zocalo, the textile museum, Teatro Macedonio Alcala, the contemporary art museum, the Alvarez Bravo photography centre, Santo Domingo, IAGO, Casa de Juarez, the printmakers' block, the Basilica de la Soledad, San Felipe Neri and the cathedral.

Self-guided, so the walk is yours. 12 stops, 3.1 km, about 105 minutes at an easy pace, narrated in English and Spanish with a live GPS map. No group, no guide, no set arrival time. Pause as long as you like and pick the story up where you left it.