--- title: "Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City: History, the Orozco Mural and Eating at Sanborns" description: "The House of Tiles at Madero 4: the Counts of Orizaba palace, Orozco's mural on the stairs, whether entry is free, and what to order at Sanborns." canonical: https://www.hotelbellasartes.com/en/blog/casa-de-los-azulejos-mexico-city datePublished: 2026-11-12 dateModified: 2026-11-12 --- # Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City: History, the Orozco Mural and Eating at Sanborns Mexico City's tile-clad palace on Madero Street: who built it, what to look at inside, whether it costs anything, what to order at Sanborns and how to walk there in two minutes from Hotel Bellas Artes. The **Casa de los Azulejos** (House of Tiles) is the former **Palace of the Counts of the Valle de Orizaba**, an 18th-century colonial mansion wrapped in blue-and-white Puebla talavera tiles. It fills the block between pedestrian **Madero Street** (main door at Madero 4) and **Avenida 5 de Mayo** in Mexico City's Historic Center. Since 1919 it has housed a **Sanborns** restaurant and store, which means **you can walk in for free**: no ticket is needed to see the covered courtyard or José Clemente Orozco's mural *Omniscience* on the staircase. As of November 2026 the restaurant is listed as open daily from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.; check with Sanborns before you go. For our guests it is practically next door. **Hotel Bellas Artes** sits at Av. 5 de Mayo 10, on the corner of Filomeno Mata, and the house's north façade is right across the avenue. The Madero entrance is **about a 2-minute walk** from our lobby. ## The short version - **Address:** Av. Francisco I. Madero 4, Centro. The building also faces 5 de Mayo and the narrow Callejón de la Condesa on its east side. - **Admission:** free. It is a working restaurant and shop, not a museum. - **Restaurant hours:** 7:00 to 1:00, every day (as of November 2026). - **If you only have 15 minutes:** the three tiled façades, the glass-roofed courtyard and the Orozco mural on the stair landing. - **From the hotel:** 2 minutes on foot. The Torre Latinoamericana, across Madero, is 3. ## From noble palace to diner: six dates The title of Count of the Valle de Orizaba went to Rodrigo de Vivero in the early 17th century, and his family pieced together several houses on this lot of what was then Calle de San Francisco. What you see now is essentially an 18th-century building. - **1737:** Graciana Suárez de Peredo, fifth Countess of the Valle de Orizaba, has the façade faced with blue-and-white tiles from Puebla. This is the date usually given for the tilework; some sources place the main rebuilding in 1793. - **1871:** The counts' heirs sell the house. From 1881 the upper floor is rented by the Jockey Club, the society club of the Porfirio Díaz years. - **Early 1900s:** When Avenida 5 de Mayo is widened, the house gains its tiled north façade on that street. - **1917 to 1919:** Brothers Walter and Frank Sanborn, from California, lease the palace, spend two years remodeling it and roof the courtyard with stained glass. Their restaurant and store open here in 1919. - **1925:** José Clemente Orozco paints Omniscience in the stairwell, one of his earliest murals. - **1931:** The house is declared a national monument. ### The spendthrift son Locals tell it differently. In the version the chronicler Luis González Obregón wrote down, a young heir was squandering the family money until his father warned him he would *never build a house of tiles*, an old saying for someone who would come to nothing. The son reformed and, to prove the point, covered the whole house in talavera. It is folklore rather than record, but it is the story everyone in the city knows. ## Inside: what to see without ordering a thing You don't need a table to see the best parts. Go in through Madero and work your way through: 1. **The courtyard.** The old main patio is now the central dining room. It keeps its mosaic fountain and carved columns under the stained-glass roof the Sanborns added, and the walls carry painted peacocks from the remodel years. 2. **The staircase and *Omniscience*.** Climb the main stairs to the landing to find Orozco's 1925 mural, a group of allegorical figures built around the idea of knowledge. The Palacio de Bellas Artes, 1 minute from the hotel, has a much later Orozco, so you can see how far he travelled in a decade. 3. **The upper floor.** Copper balustrades and the gilded frames of the former chapel are reminders that this was an aristocratic home. The style is Baroque with Mudéjar touches. 4. **The façades.** On the way out, walk around the block: Madero is the main front, the Callejón de la Condesa side is the easiest to photograph without crowds, and the 5 de Mayo side is the one our guests see from the hotel. Tip: on weekdays before 10 a.m. the courtyard is calm. Ask staff before photographing people who are eating. ## Eating at Sanborns de los Azulejos Sanborns is a Mexican chain with hundreds of branches, and the menu here is the standard one. What you are really paying for, at chain prices rather than fine-dining ones, is the room. It is best for **breakfast** or an easy lunch. - **Enchiladas suizas.** The dish most associated with the house: chicken-filled tortillas in green salsa with cream and melted cheese. Their origin has several competing stories, and the chain itself tells them all; the most repeated one says the cheese reminded Walter Sanborn of snow on the Alps. - **Mexican breakfasts:** chilaquiles, molletes, huevos rancheros, with café de olla or hot chocolate. - **Just a break:** coffee and pan dulce, if all you want is half an hour under the stained glass. Expect a line at weekend lunchtime; come early or come for dinner. For other options within a few steps, see our guide to [where to eat near the Palacio de Bellas Artes](https://www.hotelbellasartes.com/en/blog/where-to-eat-near-palacio-de-bellas-artes). ## Getting there - **From Hotel Bellas Artes:** cross 5 de Mayo and walk down the Callejón de la Condesa, alongside the tiled side wall, to Madero; the entrance is on your right. About 2 minutes. - **By metro:** **Bellas Artes** station (lines 2 and 8) is 1 minute from the hotel, and 3 to 4 minutes from the house along 5 de Mayo or Madero. - **From the Zócalo:** walk west along pedestrian Madero, roughly 5 minutes without stops. The house is on the last block before Eje Central, opposite the church of San Francisco. ## Where it fits in your day The Casa de los Azulejos works best as an ending. Here is the evening we suggest to our guests: ride up to the **Torre Latinoamericana** observation deck around sunset, come down, cross Madero and have enchiladas under the stained glass, since the restaurant stays open long after the museums close. Then take the Callejón de la Condesa back to 5 de Mayo, and the hotel is just across the avenue. From our rooftop terrace you will see the tower lit up, the same one you were standing on an hour earlier. If mornings suit you better, have breakfast here and walk on to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for more Orozco; our guide to the [Palacio de Bellas Artes: how to get there and what to see](https://www.hotelbellasartes.com/en/blog/palacio-de-bellas-artes-how-to-get-there-what-to-see) covers hours and tickets. To string the house together with the Alameda, the Palacio Postal and the rest of Madero, follow our [Alameda Central and Madero Street walking tour](https://www.hotelbellasartes.com/en/blog/alameda-central-madero-street-walking-tour). To have all of this two minutes from your door, you can [book directly with us](https://www.hotelbellasartes.com/en/direct-booking). ## FAQ ### Do you have to pay to go into the Casa de los Azulejos? No. It is an open Sanborns restaurant and store, so you can walk in to see the courtyard, the staircase and the Orozco mural without paying or ordering. ### Where exactly is the Orozco mural? On the landing of the main staircase that rises from the courtyard. It is called *Omniscience* (*Omnisciencia*) and José Clemente Orozco painted it in 1925. ### Why is it called the Palace of the Counts of the Valle de Orizaba? Because that noble family lived here in colonial times. The fifth countess had the façade tiled in the 18th century, and her descendants kept the house until 1871. ### How far is it from Hotel Bellas Artes? About 2 minutes on foot. The hotel is at 5 de Mayo 10, and the house fills the block across the street, between 5 de Mayo and Madero.