Bellas Artes is a station along Line 2 and Line 8 of the

Mexico City Metro The Mexico City Metro ( es, Metro de la Ciudad de México) is a rapid transit system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City, including some municipalities in Mexico State. Operated by the Sistema de Transporte Colectivo (STC), it is ...

system. It is located in the Colonia Centro neighborhood of the

Cuauhtémoc Cuauhtémoc (, ), also known as Cuauhtemotzín, Guatimozín, or Guatémoc, was the Aztec ruler (''tlatoani'') of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, making him the last Aztec Emperor. The name Cuauhtemōc means "one who has descended like an eagle" ...

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, on the junction of Avenida Juárez and Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, on the eastern end of the

Alameda Central Alameda Central is a public urban park in downtown Mexico City. Created in 1592, the Alameda Central is the oldest public park in the Americas. It is located in Cuauhtémoc borough, adjacent to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, between Juárez Aven ...

, west of the city centre. In 2019, the station had an average ridership of 51,440 passengers per day.

Name and pictogram

The station is named for the

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...

opera house and museum, opened in 1934 and located next to the station. The pictogram depicts a stylized version of the palace's

art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

façade as seen from the main southern entrance.

History

The Line 2 section of the station was among the first to be opened in the system on 14 September 1970; the transfer with Line 8 was inaugurated on 20 July 1994. French

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

inaugurated a treasured

Hector Guimard Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building ...

style

Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the Paris, city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform ar ...

entrance next to the western wing of the Palace on 14 November 1998. The entrance was a gift given in return for the mural ''El pensamiento y el alma huicholes'' by

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California ...

artist Santos de la Torre presented in 1997 to the Paris Métro that is now on display at the Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre station.

General information

Inside the station, the platforms in Line 2 show reproductions of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n art. Similarly, the Line 8 platforms are decorated with colourful murals, with Mexican and French motifs: a reproduction of one of the Bonampak murals by Rina Lazo; ''Visión francesa sobre México'' by Jean-Paul Chambas, and ''Visión de un artista mexicano sobre Francia'' by Rodolfo Morales. As many stations in the Metro network, Bellas Artes has a cyber center, where users can access internet through a computer; the service is free and it is open from 8:00 to 20:00. From here, it is also possible to transfer to Metrobús Line 4 and Line A of the trolleybus service.

Ridership

References

External links