Zona Luz

Zona Luz is the old quarter of Villahermosa: the streets Diego de Quijada laid out when he founded the town in 1564, west of Avenida Pino Suárez and north of the Plaza de Armas, a few blocks from the Grijalva River. Five of its cobbled streets are pedestrian-only, and the oldest are 5 de Mayo, Independencia, Narciso Sáenz, Aldama and Juárez, once called Calle del Comercio. Together with the Esquipulas, Santa Cruz and La Punta neighbourhoods it makes up a Centro Histórico of about 143 hectares, where the city counts some 157 buildings of heritage value. In July 2023 Mexico's federal Tourism Secretariat (SECTUR) gave it the Barrio Mágico designation, along with an agreement to repaint 140 house fronts.

Little of the colonial town survives. Pirate raids drove the provincial government to Tacotalpa until 1795, and 19th-century bombardments levelled much of the rest; the oldest building still standing is a house of 1750 on Calle Miguel Hidalgo. What you see today is mostly late 19th and early 20th century. The Casa de los Azulejos, an eclectic tiled mansion of 1889, served as a home, shop, government offices and hotel before becoming the Museo de Historia de Tabasco, at Juárez and 27 de Febrero. The neoclassical Palacio de Gobierno opened on 13 December 1894 facing the Plaza de Armas, which dates from the 1564 plan, and across from it the church of La Concepción opened on 8 December 1800 and was hit in the bombardments of 1846-1847 and 1863-1864. The Instituto Juárez, the state's first college, has occupied Governor Simón Sarlat's former home since 1879, and the Banco Nacional de México building, from the 1850s, housed the state government before becoming a bank in 1896.

Zona Luz is also a writers' quarter: the houses of the poets Carlos Pellicer and José Gorostiza stand on Narciso Sáenz and Lerdo, and Pellicer's is a house museum with his belongings. At the corner of Narciso Sáenz and Lerdo, the Casa Siempreviva hosts exhibitions, and the old Sheba cinema still stands on Madero. Towards the river, El Playón saw Mexicana's first flight land on 15 October 1928, and the Torre del Caballero is a lookout over the Grijalva. On weekdays the streets fill with shops, cafés and office workers; the problems the city itself lists are broken sidewalks, little shade, litter and poor lighting.