Toluca De Lerdo: Culture and History

When looking for a hotel in Toluca De Lerdo, you can include the city’s cultural highlights in your travel plans. The Cosmovitral is in the heart of the historic center. Its 48 monumental stained-glass windows were created by artist Leopoldo Flores. Parque de la Ciencia Fundadores is opposite the Cosmovitral Botanical Garden and covers more than 24,000 square meters, including over 7,000 square meters of green space. With the stained-glass ensemble and the expansive park, two distinct places are at the center of the cityscape.

Museums, Glass, and Science

The Museo del Alfeñique combines exhibitions with a craft tradition rooted in Toluca. It has six interactive exhibition halls featuring numerous handcrafted items and objects. The museum preserves the Alfeñique art of Toluca’s popular culture: an art form that celebrates the cycles of life and death with joy and color. Cultural craftsmanship and a distinctive perspective on these cycles come together in the same theme.

Parque de la Ciencia Fundadores offers another perspective: its planetarium has a 360-degree screen showing informative documentaries about science, astronomy, and the environment. The park thus combines green spaces with offerings dedicated to these fields of knowledge. Visitors interested in different subjects will find both cultural exhibition venues and a place focused on science in Toluca.

Alfeñique Tradition and Los Portales

The Feria del Alfeñique has been held since 1989 and aims to strengthen the millennia-old tradition of Día de Muertos. It takes place at Los Portales in downtown Toluca. Alfeñique sweets and regional candies are sold and displayed there. Traditional forms of Alfeñique sweets include coffins, skulls, crosses, sheep, deer, bones, angels, other animals, and fruit. The selection from individual vendors and seasonal products may vary.

The Feria’s cultural program includes exhibitions, talks, dance, music, theater, culinary performances, concerts, book presentations, and workshops; individual editions may differ. Los Portales is also an architectural complex considered one of the longest in Mexico. Visitors can explore cafés, ice cream parlors, and shops there and enjoy views of the historic center. Shops offer, among other things, the sweet orange liqueur Mosquito, green and red chorizo, dairy products, and regional candies. Individual offerings may change.

Cultural Venues and Music

Centro Cultural Mexiquense occupies a 16-hectare site on the former grounds of Hacienda de La Pila. The complex includes the Biblioteca Pública Central Estatal, the Museo de Antropología e Historia, the Museo de Arte Moderno, and the Museo de Culturas Populares. The institutions’ names point to different subject areas: public library, anthropology and history, modern art, and popular culture.

Together with Sala de Conciertos Elisa Carrillo Cabrera, Sala de Conciertos Felipe Villanueva is home to the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México and the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil del Estado de México. As part of the “Acércate un miércoles a la cultura” program, theater, music, and dance performances for children, young people, and adults are held there. Events and dates may change. The building was created from the former Justo Sierra cinema and rebuilt at the end of the 20th century.

Religious buildings also preserve art and history. Templo de la Merced houses numerous examples of sacred art, including the oil painting “Patrocinio de la Virgen de La Merced,” signed by Manuel Domínguez in 1702, as well as works by Juan de Dios Flores. Templo del Carmen houses rooms belonging to Museo de Bellas Artes, with paintings and objects from the colonial period. Capilla del Señor del Calvario stands on the central hill in Parque Matlatzincas and dates from the 19th century.

A Nearby Destination: Calixtlahuaca

Visiting hours for the nearby archaeological zone of Calixtlahuaca are listed as Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the hours before setting out. The zone is in the town of San Francisco Calixtlahuaca, in the municipality of Toluca. Access is via the road toward Tecaxic to the archaeological zone at Cerro Tenismó; conditions along the route may change.

Getting There and Choosing a Hotel

Toluca’s infrastructure includes “Lic. Adolfo López” International Airport, the “El Insurgente” Interurban Train, an extensive public transportation network, and several highways. Routes and transportation services may change, so check current connections before your trip. When choosing a hotel, consider which of the subjects mentioned are important to your stay: the historic center with its stained-glass windows and Los Portales, museums and art, or science and green spaces. Find a hotel that suits your travel plans.

Discover more destinations: Texcoco De Mora, San Rafael, Emiliano Zapata, Metepec, El Pedregal, Malinalco, Juchitepec de Mariano Rivapalacio, Valle De Bravo.

For the main travel overview: México.