Earthquake, Exile, Reinvention
Walk seven stops from a circus owner's European fantasy to an Art Deco tower that refused to fall. Every block in Roma and Condesa was rebuilt by someone who was never supposed to be here.
Start
Plaza Rio de Janeiro: The Circus Owner's Stage
Tour Stops (7) · First 3 free
Plaza Rio de Janeiro: The Circus Owner's Stage
A Gothic apartment building commissioned by a dictator, a bronze David that arrived sixty-eight years late, and the plaza where Roma began.
Casa Lamm: The House Nobody Lived In
The oldest surviving house in Roma, built by its developers, never occupied by them, and now a cultural center that outlasted the class it was built for.
Avenida Alvaro Obregon: The Morning the Fantasy Ended
Roma's grand Parisian boulevard, where 472 buildings collapsed on September 19, 1985, and a masked wrestler became the voice of the displaced.
The Spanish Quarter: Actual Spaniards in Fake Spain
Where 20,000 Spanish Republican refugees settled into mansions built to imitate the country they had just fled.
Avenida Amsterdam: The Ghost Horse Track
An elliptical street tracing the outline of a horse racing track owned by a countess, redesigned by an architect who turned sport into urban planning.
Parque Mexico: Lindbergh's Theater, Yiddish in the Trees
An Art Deco park built on a racetrack, named for a diplomatic stunt, where Yiddish became the unofficial language in the 1930s.
Edificio Basurto: The Tower That Fell and Stood Again
Francisco Serrano's Art Deco masterpiece, fourteen stories built during World War II, broken by an earthquake, and standing again.
3 stops free · Full tour $2.99