In depth
Flowers, crafts and curiosities: a week in Mexico City’s markets
La Merced, San Juan, the Ciudadela, the Saturday bazaars and Sunday antiques: the city’s markets.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Nia Ran01 · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsMexico City has traded in its markets since the days of Tlatelolco. From the great hall of La Merced to the crafts of the Ciudadela, the Saturday Bazar Sábado and the Sunday antiques of La Lagunilla, a week of markets, with the places in our guide.
Long before the shopping centres, Mexico City traded in its markets, and it still does. Every colonia has its own, and the great ones are worth crossing the city for: halls of chillies and fruit, aisles of embroidery and masks, Saturday bazaars where the makers sell their own work and Sunday streets of antiques. Plan your week around them and you will eat, shop and people-watch as the city does.
La Merced
La Merced is the city’s largest traditional market, and for decades it supplied the whole city. Its great hall, the Nave Mayor, on Rosario, east of the Centro, is the heir to the famous pre-Hispanic market of Tlatelolco, and around it lie many more halls in a neighbourhood of markets. Go in the morning, with small change and an appetite.
San Juan
The Mercado de San Juan, at Ernesto Pugibet 21, is best known for gourmet and imported foods and for its long-standing butchers and fishmongers. Nearby, at Ayuntamiento 22–28, the Mercado de Artesanías San Juan broke away from the original market to sell artisan gifts and curiosities, and opens every day, 9.30am–6.30pm.
Crafts from every region
The Mercado de Artesanías de La Ciudadela, on Balderas at Emilio Dondé, opened during the 1968 Olympics to show crafts from all over the country, and it remains the place to compare embroidery, masks, ceramics and silver under one roof. FONART, the national fund for crafts, has its shop at Paseo de la Reforma 116.
On Saturdays, head south to San Ángel. The Bazar Sábado has filled its house at Plaza San Jacinto 11 every Saturday since the 1960s, 10am–7pm, with silver from Taxco, high-fired ceramics, backstrap-loom textiles, wood carving and jewellery, sold by their makers. Pineda Covalin sells its silk scarves on the same square, at number 16.
On Saturdays the dealers spread over every free space.
Flowers and food halls
The Mercado de Jamaica, at Guillermo Prieto 45, is the city’s great flower market. In Roma, the Mercado Medellín, at Campeche 101, is a neighbourhood market, while Mercado Roma, at Querétaro 225, gathers independent food stalls under one roof for an easy lunch. In the south, the Mercado de Coyoacán is on Ignacio Allende, in Colonia Del Carmen.
Antiques at the weekend
The Plaza del Ángel, at Londres 161 in the Zona Rosa, is home to some of the country’s leading antiques dealers. On Saturdays dozens of smaller dealers spread over every free space with china, books, religious art and furniture. On Sundays, La Lagunilla’s antiques market fills the streets around Rayón 54, in Colonia Morelos.
Our advice: keep Saturday for San Ángel and the Plaza del Ángel, Sunday morning for La Lagunilla, and a weekday morning for La Merced and San Juan. Carry small notes and a sturdy bag, and leave room in your case.
Why it's on our list
- La Merced
- San Juan
- Crafts from every region
- Flowers and food halls
- Antiques at the weekend
- Our advice
Location
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