Cosmovitral y Jardín Botánico

Food: NA/5
Service: 5/5 (paid tour)
Ambiance: 5/5
Parking: 1/5
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 I'm the area!

I loved it! I have never seen anything like it. Truly an entire work of art. It's very small. It's definitely worth visiting!

https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=museo&table_id=51

The building in which the Cosmovitral Botanical Garden of Toluca is currently located, originally housed the 16 de Septiembre Market of the city of Toluca. Its construction began on February 22, 1909, in order to commemorate the centenary of the Independence of Mexico. It was the engineer Manuel Arratia, originally from Zumpango, State of Mexico, made the design with an art nouveau style and the Fundidora y Aceros de Monterrey took over the metal frame.
The market functioned as such until 1975, when it was decided to convert it into a botanical garden. In the new project, the large windows were used to transform them into a Cosmovitral, whose structure is composed of 71 modules totaling three thousand square meters. The Mexican artist Leopoldo Flores Valdés is the author of the Cosmovitral, who for a year made the project of the work of art, and a group of 60 artisans executed the work for three years in the workshops installed ex profeso in Lerma, State of Mexico.
Approximately 75 tons of metal structure, 45 tons of blown glass and 25 tons of lead canes were used for its realization. The work consists of about 500 thousand fragments of glass, placed in 30 thousand sections of leaded. 28 different colors of glass were needed, most of which (80%) came from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Japan, Canada and the United States.

Not to be missed if in the area.