page_title: Old Portal de Mercaderes (Mexico City)
section_title: Gran Hotel Ciudad de México
hierarchical_section_title: Old Portal de Mercaderes (Mexico City) / Gran Hotel Ciudad de México
caption_attribution_description: English: Stained glass skyroof at the Hotel Ciudad de Mexico on 16 de Septiembre in the historic center of Mexico City
context_page_description: Old Portal de Mercaderes in the historic center of Mexico City was and is the west side of the main plaza. This side of the plaza has been occupied by commercial structures since the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in 1521. Today the west side of the square is dominated by two sets of buildings with Madero Street dividing them as it runs west from the Zocalo to the Palace of Bellas Artes. The buildings on the north side of Madero is occupied by offices on the upper floors and shops at ground level. The southside buildings are dominated on the ground floor by fine jewelry stores, marking the beginning of the "Centro Joyero Zocalo." This center extends west for two block engulfing Palma Street between Madero and 16 de Septiembre streets. Most of the upper floors of the buildings here are occupied by rooms associated with the Hotel de Ciudad de Mexico and the Hotel Majestic.
context_section_description: The Gran Hotel occupies the extreme southern end of this side, and while it appears to be the same building as that which contains the Hotel Majestic, in reality it is separate. This building came into being as the "Mercantile Center" in 1899, built for José de Teresa, a merchant and ambassador of Mexico to Austria. At the end of the 19th century, Mexico made strides to modernize; one way of doing this was by introducing new building techniques. It was the first building built using the "Chicago" technique, using iron and concrete and was home to one of the first department stores in Mexico City. Its entrance and façade is located on 16 de Septiembre and not the Zócalo. For that reason, its façade is the original Neoclassical and not the neocolonial mandated by the government to unify the appearance of the Zócalo. Only the side of the building facing the Zócalo itself has been redone in this fashion.
  The interior of the hotel maintains most of the original decor created for when it was a department store. It is a decorated lavishly in the Art Nouveau style. It had an undulating and enveloping stairway, which was a replica of the one from the Au Bon Marché store in Paris, but it was lost in 1966. However, the cage-like elevators and the stained-glass ceiling designed by French artisan Jacques Grüber are all originals. The pattern of the glass ceiling is meant to evoke the railroad, at that time the symbol of modernity. At the center of the domed glass are three medallions.
  The building was converted to a hotel in 1968 to accommodate crowds attending the 1968 Summer Olympics. It has been featured in multiple films, including the James Bond films Licence to Kill and Spectre and the Palme d'Or-winning political drama Missing, in which it doubles for the Hotel Carrera in Santiago.
caption: Art Nouveau stained glass ceiling in the hotel
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