Museo Dolores Omedo Piña

The Museo Dolores Olmedo Piña, located in the suburb of Xochimilco, is one of our favorite places to visit in Mexico City. Although it takes about 45 minutes to drive there from the heart of the city, the journey is well worth the effort. Perhaps you have never heard of Dolores Olmedo Piña, but she was an astonishing woman of dramatic beauty, talent, and energy. Born in 1908, she died in 2002, having lived a remarkable 94 years—a life brimming with glamour and wealth. Although travel wasn’t simple, she constantly visited exotic destinations throughout the world and seemed to have friends everywhere, from nobility to Popes. Always loving the flamboyant, she built an enormous home in a magnificent multi-acre, walled estate that once housed an Aztec palace. The mansion, surrounded by a large park, is itself worth a visit. Here you can wander through room after room, filled with Piña’s furnishings and personal photos, gasping in wonder at her exuberant way of life. But what makes the museum so fantastic is its collection of art. Dolores Olmedo became the last great love and benefactor of Diego Rivera and her home is now a museum, housing one of the greatest collections of his work. This includes Rivera’s paintings of her children and sunsets from her estate in Acapulco where he lived for the last few years of his life. Also on display are paintings by many other artists, including an excellent collection of the work of Frida Kahlo.