Mexico City's oldest park has been a public garden since 1592 — three centuries before Central Park opened in New York. It runs for half a kilometre west of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, planted with poplars (álamos, from which the name comes), fountains, and a roster of neoclassical sculpture.
The park was the scene of public executions during the Inquisition and the site of military parades through the 19th century; today it is one of the few quiet open spaces in the centre. The Hemiciclo a Juárez — a white marble monument to the reformist president Benito Juárez — anchors the southern edge. The Museo Mural Diego Rivera at the eastern end holds his "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda," moved here after the original wall was destroyed in the 1985 earthquake.