Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez ordered the building in 1785 as a stately home. Francisco Bambitelli drew the blueprint, and construction began in August 1785. The Crown auctioned the unfinished building at one-fifth of its cost and found no buyers, and Mexico City's government bought it in 1806. It then served as a gunpowder warehouse and a military academy.
Architects including Julius Hofmann and Carl Gangolf Kayser renovated it for Emperor Maximilian in the 1860s, and the work is described as neoclassical. Botanist Wilhelm Knechtel created a roof garden, and Maximilian ordered the boulevard that became Paseo de la Reforma. The infobox gives 1864 as completion. The castle is 220 feet (67 m) tall.
It was the presidential residence from 1882 to 1934. President Lázaro Cárdenas made it the National Museum of History in February 1939, though the museum opened on September 27, 1944. The article gives no visiting details.
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