Palacio de Gobierno

The Palacio de Gobierno stands beside Oaxaca City’s Zócalo in Mexico, placing this historic government building at the city’s centre. Its green-cantera façade faces Oaxaca City’s main square.

The site held Oaxaca’s first town hall in 1576, and later rebuilding shaped the neoclassical structure visible today. Earthquakes damaged the building and prompted further reconstruction.

Builders replaced the original adobe walls with green cantera stone, a material strongly associated with Oaxaca’s architecture. The stone gives the palace its distinctive colour.

Inside, Arturo García Bustos painted a main-staircase mural that connects pre-Hispanic, conquest, and independence periods in Oaxaca’s history. The large main-staircase mural has three sections.

Scenes include Zapotec, Mixtec, and Mexica life, Spanish conquest imagery, and independence figures such as Benito Juárez. A second mural occupies the side staircase leading towards the eastern patio.

It presents the worldview of Oaxaca’s pre-Hispanic peoples. Open spaces and solid construction reflect the building’s long role as the seat of Oaxaca’s state government.

The palace also witnessed political demonstrations and social protests. Together, the architecture, stonework, and murals record Oaxaca’s changing civic and cultural history around the Zócalo.