Riviera del Pacifico (Centro Cultural Riviera)

The Riviera del Pacifico opened in 1930 on Ensenada's waterfront boulevard as a Spanish-colonial-style casino and hotel built to draw American visitors during U.S. Prohibition, when gambling and drinking were illegal north of the border. The building's arcaded courtyards, painted wood ceilings, and formal gardens reflect the eclectic Spanish Revival style favored by resort architects of the era, and the Bar Andaluz, with its hand-painted tile and carved bar, is preserved largely as it was when the casino operated. Gambling ended with Mexico's 1935 ban on casinos, and the building later served as a municipal building before its restoration as the Centro Cultural Riviera. The Museo de Historia de Ensenada now occupies part of the complex, presenting the region's history from indigenous settlement through the mission period, the Gold Rush, and Prohibition-era tourism in a chronological sequence of rooms. The exterior arcades, ballroom, and gardens have been restored and are maintained as public cultural space, hosting exhibitions and events, while the museum galleries use period photographs, documents, and artifacts rather than large-scale reconstructions. As the best-preserved building of Ensenada's Prohibition-era boom, the Riviera stands as the clearest physical record of the tourism economy that first put Baja California on the U.S. leisure map.