Cosmovitral — Attraction in State of Mexico

In the heart of the downtown of the city,  this is an iconic place for the city of Toluca and I dare to say to the country.  (Many photos of the man in flames, in the centre of this garden, approve my sentence).  The building functioned as a market (Mercado 16 de Septiembre)  during the first decades of the last century until the local government decided to make it a reference place for the city landscape. With the help of Manuel Arratia (engineer) and Manuel Arratia (artist) this garden it's a must to visit in the city of Toluca.

The Jardín Botánico y Cosmovitral design is art nouveau. 60 local craftsman helped with the creation of the artistic walls. 75 tons of glass of 28 different colours (the glass was brought from countries like Italy, France, Germany or Japan).  the main theme of the "Cosmovitral" is the mankind and the relationship with the universe.  It shows the evolution and keystones of the mankind and the close relationship with the environment and the universe.  (the ceiling shows the celestial vault and the Milky Way constellation.

This old market preserves more than 400 species of plants from Central America, South America, Africa and Asia.  There is a pond with koi fish of...

Food: NA/5 Service: 5/5 (paid tour) Ambiance: 5/5 Parking: NA/5 Family/stroller friendly: 5/5

If you're ever in the El Centro de Toluca, Mexico area, this is a must see place. It is a botanical garden and THE BIGGEST STAINED GLASS HOUSE in the world, it absolutely lives up to it's name. There is a fee to get in, but very nominal.

However, before even getting inside, just inside the entrance you'll find an enormous Orange hued, stained glass mural, reminiscent of Captain Marvel, or a rising Phoenix. With the spring equinox, the sun hits perfectly from the outside, through the stained glass and portrays a perfect replica on the botanical garden floor. The stain glass murals might even rival that of the Sistine chapel in the way stories are portrayed, in my opinion.

Be warned though, since this is a botanical garden, it tends to be a bit humid to keep a variety of landscapes and over abundance of plants comfortable. Also, there might be the occasional "influencer" snapping photos and doing multiple runs of "live" dancing.

Anyways, I digress. It's great for families.

Parking is no bueno as we had to park across the street. This is a downtown area after all.

Highly recommend if...

An amazing, intriguing place. As you walk you can see the beautiful masterpieces put together with stained glass, you can see a huge amount of different -exotic- plants. Everything is so green, so colorful. There are fishes in what looks as an asian themed space. You can also find cactus and lots of flowers. The place is so organized and well planned. And when the sun hits the stained glass, the lighting is incredibly beautiful. When you are near the exit, you can notice the little store they have, it iss more like a glass desk where you can see the mugs, shirts, keyholders, etc. The stained glass structure is completely unexpensive and an amazing place to go to, so relaxing, so creative. The catching thing, for someone who has not been in a place where subterranean surrounding are common, is that the restroms are below the first floor, so instead of typical stairs to go up, you go down. Another thing that got my attention was that there were a couple pigeons flying around, you know being a curious person made me wonder how they got in... It might be a silly thing to point out since there are several explanations to it, but I like questioning everything that gives me the...