The Casa de los Azulejos (House of Tiles) is one of those buildings that makes you stop mid-sidewalk and stare. Covered on three sides with blue-and-white Talavera tiles from Puebla, it sits on Calle Madero in the Historic Center, looking like someone tiled a palace and forgot to stop. Inside, it’s a Sanborns department store. Mexico City doesn’t do subtlety.
The building dates to the 18th century — a Baroque palace originally built for the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba. The Talavera tile facade was added around 1737, reportedly by the fifth Countess, who wanted to distinguish her home from every other colonial mansion on the block. She succeeded. Nearly three centuries later, it’s still the most recognizable building on one of the most walked streets in the city.
The Tile Facade
The tiles themselves are traditional Talavera — a style of majolica pottery brought to Mexico from Spain (which got it from the Moors), produced primarily in Puebla and Tlaxcala. The blue-and-white color scheme on the Casa de los Azulejos is classic, though the patterns are more intricate than most surviving examples. Each tile was handmade and hand-painted, and the total coverage — three full exterior walls — represents a staggering amount of craftsmanship.
Look closely and you’ll see the tiles aren’t uniform. Patterns shift between sections, colors vary slightly, and repairs over the centuries have introduced tiles that don’t quite match the originals. This is part of the charm. A perfectly uniform tile job would look like a renovation; the variations prove the real age.
The fourth side (facing the inner courtyard) is bare stone, which gives you a sense of what the building would look like without the tiles — imposing but ordinary. The tiles turned it into something extraordinary.
The Orozco Mural
On the main staircase inside, a mural by Jose Clemente Orozco — “Omnisciencia” (Omniscience), painted in 1925 — is easily missed if you’re just there for breakfast. It was one of Orozco’s earlier works and shows his transition from academic painting to the monumental style that would make him, along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of Mexico’s “tres grandes” muralists.
The mural is free to see — just walk up the main staircase. Nobody will stop you, even if you’re not eating at the restaurant.
Sanborns: The Store Inside the Palace
Since 1919, the building has housed Sanborns — a Mexican chain of restaurant-department stores that’s hard to explain to outsiders. Imagine a Denny’s crossed with a pharmacy crossed with a bookstore, set inside a colonial palace with a courtyard fountain and Talavera-tiled walls. That’s Sanborns.
The food is acceptable rather than remarkable — Mexican staples (enchiladas, chilaquiles, molletes) at reasonable prices in extraordinary surroundings. The courtyard dining area, with its stained glass ceiling and tiled columns, is genuinely beautiful. Come for the space, not the cuisine.
Sanborns also claims a piece of revolutionary history: in 1914, when the armies of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa occupied Mexico City, a famous photograph captured Zapatista soldiers eating breakfast in the building. The image became iconic — peasant revolutionaries dining in aristocratic opulence.
Visiting
Location: Calle Madero 4, right on the main pedestrian street of the Historic Center. You literally can’t miss it walking between the Zocalo and Alameda Central.
Hours: Sanborns is open daily from early morning to late evening (typically 7 AM to 11 PM). The building is accessible whenever the store is open — there’s no separate admission.
Cost: Free to enter and look around. A meal at the restaurant runs $150-300 MXN per person.
How long: 15-20 minutes to see the facade, courtyard, and Orozco mural. Add 45 minutes if you eat.
Tip: The best photos of the exterior are from across Calle Madero in the late afternoon, when the sunlight hits the blue tiles directly. The courtyard interior photographs well at any time due to the even light from the glass ceiling.
Nearby
The Casa de los Azulejos sits on Calle Madero, which is itself one of the Historic Center’s main attractions — a pedestrian street running from the Zocalo west toward the Postal Palace and Palace of Fine Arts. Walking this street takes you past colonial churches, former palaces, and street performers. The Torre Latinoamericana observation tower is two blocks south. The Metropolitan Cathedral and Templo Mayor are a 5-minute walk east.
It’s the kind of building you encounter naturally while walking the Historic Center — no special detour needed. Just make sure you go inside, past the Sanborns merchandise, into the courtyard. The exterior is impressive. The interior is where the building really shows what it is.