Casa de los Azulejos

The Casa de los Azulejos stands out immediately on the Plaza de Armas for a facade entirely covered in glazed ceramic tiles, an architectural fashion imported to Mexico in the late Porfiriato period and paid for locally by the wealth Tabasco's chicle gum and tropical timber exports generated in the early 1900s. Blue, white and ochre patterns wrap the building's exterior in a style more commonly associated with the tiled houses of Puebla, making it a distinctive landmark against the surrounding plainer plaza buildings. Inside, a small municipal museum uses period photographs, documents and household objects to trace Villahermosa's transformation from a modest colonial river port on the Rio Grijalva into the oil-driven state capital it became through the 20th century. The rooms are organized loosely by era, moving from the colonial river-trade period through the chicle and timber boom that funded buildings like this one, and on to the oil industry's arrival mid-century. A full visit, including a slow look at the tiled exterior from the plaza, takes well under an hour. The building's east-facing tiles pick up particularly warm light in the late afternoon, making that the best time for photographs of the facade.