The National Palace

Built on the site of Moctezuma's palace on the Zócalo, home of viceroys and presidents, painted by Diego Rivera. The ledger of every president since 1824, including all eleven of Santa Anna's.

The National Palace fills the whole eastern side of the Zócalo, the great square at the center of Mexico City. The site has been a seat of power for five hundred years. It was the palace of Moctezuma II, ruler of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. After the Spanish conquest, Hernán Cortés built his own house on the ruins. The Spanish crown bought it in 1562, and it became the palace of the viceroys of New Spain. After independence it became the seat of the presidents.

The building

The front is about two hundred meters long, in red tezontle, a volcanic stone, trimmed with grey. Above the central door hangs the bell that Miguel Hidalgo rang in 1810 to begin the war of independence. Every 15 September, the president rings it from the balcony and gives the grito, the cry of independence, to the crowd in the square.

Between 1929 and 1951, Diego Rivera painted murals on the main staircase and the first-floor corridors. They show the history of Mexico from the pre-Hispanic cities to the twentieth century.

For most of the twentieth century, presidents worked at the palace but lived elsewhere, from 1934 at the Los Pinos residence. Andrés Manuel López Obrador moved into the National Palace when he took office in 2018 and opened Los Pinos to the public as a cultural center. His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, also lives in the palace.

Who held the office

The ledger records 84 presidential terms since Guadalupe Victoria took office in 1824, held by 64 people. The first half of the table is crowded because nineteenth-century Mexico changed presidents through coups and civil wars. Antonio López de Santa Anna held the office 11 separate times between 1833 and 1855.

The second half is regular. Since 1934 every president has served a single six-year term, the sexenio, and re-election is banned for life. The dates change on the first of December or, since 2024, the first of October. Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on 1 October 2024, is the first woman to hold the office.

84 tenures, 2 without a recorded date. Source: Wikidata, retrieved 2026-09-23.

Last updated September 22, 2026.