What to do and see in Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast: The Best Gardens

This city plaza is surrounded by numerous historic landmarks.

The sculpture park Las Pozas, located in Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, was created by Edward James, an eccentric English poet and artist, also a great patron of the Surrealist movement. Nestled in the Huasteca Potosina, Edward James found the perfect setting to create the work of his life. Between natural and artificial pools and waterfalls that prepare the mind to enter into a dreamy world, a surrealistic labyrinth unfolds. Buildings that evoke nonsense, doors that open up to nothing, stairs that lead to the sky, and concrete flowers that grow at the same time as the natural ones. The design of Las Pozas is inspired both in orchids and the greenery of the Huasteca Potosina, it combines ideas and concepts taken from the Surrealist movement in which Edward James was immersed. A Shangri-la, a fusion between organic and artificial things, between the jungle and concrete, thus managing to merge two worlds in just one. The origin of Las Pozas goes back to 1947, when Edward James (who lived in some kind of exile in the United States), purchased a coffee plantation near Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, and registered it in the name of Plutarco Gastelum, his close friend, together they created Las Pozas. During the first years, Edward James kept the Las Pozas as a display of his fabulous orchid collection, and as home for his many exotic pets. In 1962, after an unprecedented frost that destroyed a huge part of Edward James' plantation, he concentrated on constructing the sculptural garden we know today. The sculptural set of Xilitla is located inside a piece of land situated in a place called La Conchita, township of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí. It takes up an area of almost nine hectares. Between 1964 and 1967, the renowned painter, Leonora Carrington, visited the park, leaving an al fresco painted mural in El Castillo, Plutarco Gastelum's house, also Edward James' home during his visits. The image of the painting corresponds to a figure with human feminine traits and a zoomorph head. In 2007, the Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, A.C, acquired Las Pozas with the purpose of preserving the sculptures and protecting the flora of its surroundings. The Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, A. C., besides being in charge of receiving more than 80 thousand visitors each year, also works on: - The preservation and restoration of the structure - The preservation and restoration of the garden - The preservation and restoration of the areas of woods that belong to the property