Paseo de Montejo, which runs parallel to Calles 56 and 58, was an attempt by Mérida’s 19th-century city planners to create a wide boulevard similar to the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City or the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Though more modest than its predecessors, the Paseo de Montejo is still a beautiful green swath of relatively open space in an urban conglomeration of stone and concrete, and there are some wonderful buildings built along it.
Europe’s architectural and social influence can be seen along the paseo in the fine mansions built by wealthy families around the end of the 19th century. The greatest concentrations of surviving mansions are north of Calle 37, and on the first block of Avenida Colón west of Paseo de Montejo.