Museo Rafael Coronel

The painter Rafael Coronel spent decades collecting the masks Mexicans dance in, and the result - installed in the ruined sixteenth-century Franciscan convent of Zacatecas - is one of the largest mask collections in the world, commonly cited above ten thousand pieces with several thousand on display. Room after room presents them by region and dance: horned devils and Christian saints, jaguars, old men, conquistadors with pink cheeks and glass eyes, moors and Christians, tastoanes, viejitos, chinelos, animals of every disposition, carved in wood, leather, wax and papier-mache. The building matches the collection: sections stand roofless with sky and vines above the arches, gardens grow inside the cloisters, and the transition between ruined and restored space keeps the walk theatrical. Beyond the masks, the museum holds Coronel's own paintings, a collection of puppets from the Rosete Aranda company, colonial art, pre-Hispanic ceramics and drawings by Diego Rivera - Coronel's father-in-law. Even visitors indifferent to folk art tend to leave converted.

What you actually see

• The mask halls - thousands of dance masks by region.
• The ruined cloisters - roofless arches, gardens and sky.
• The puppet collection - Rosete Aranda marionettes.
• The Coronel and Rivera works - painting and drawings.

When to go

Any day but Wednesday; mornings for cool cloisters and soft light in the roofless sections. Two hours is a fair minimum.

Honest expectations

Labels are sparse and Spanish-first; the impact is visual rather than didactic. Open sections are exposed to weather. The museum is a walk from the centre, uphill on the way back.

Nearby

The cathedral, the Pedro Coronel museum and the Bufa cable car are all within the historic centre.