Andador Macedonio Alcalá

The Andador Turístico Macedonio Alcalá is the pedestrian spine of Oaxaca's historic centre: about five blocks of Calle Macedonio Alcalá running north from the Zócalo to the Templo de Santo Domingo. The street is paved with the green cantera stone that gives the city its colour, and colonial and 19th-century houses of the same stone line both sides. It was closed to cars in 1985 and has been a walking street ever since; in August 2026 the city began fitting six metal gates along it, approved by INAH, to keep vehicles out for good, bringing back a feature that had vanished some 15 years earlier.

The street is named after Macedonio Alcalá (1831 to 1869), the Oaxacan violinist and composer of the waltz "Dios nunca muere", which works as the state's unofficial anthem. Along it stand some of the centro's best-known buildings. At number 202 a late 17th-century mansion with family coats of arms on its facade, popularly but wrongly called the Casa de Cortés, has housed the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO) since 1992. Further up are the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca at number 507, the little Plazuela Labastida, the Templo de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo and the original building of the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez.

Between the sights the street is full of craft and textile shops, galleries, cafés and agencies selling day trips to the valleys. Oaxacans come here to stroll, and the street hosts festivals and open-air events through the year. Walking it end to end, from the cathedral side of the Zócalo up to the atrium of Santo Domingo, is the classic first walk in Oaxaca.