| Paseo de la Reforma is one of the most important avenues in Mexico City.
 This broad avenue divides Mexico City diagonally.  It was built on the orders of Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg, during the Second Mexican Empire, by the Austrian architect and military officer Ferdinand von Rosenzweig, who took as a model the great European Boulevards such as the Champs-Ãlysées in Paris.  It was originally called "El Paseo de la Emperatriz", a name that changed to the current one when the Republic was restored at the end of the Second Empire.  It was designed to unite Chapultepec Castle with the National Palace. 
 
 |