September 16, 2026 · By Alejandra Flores – Monterrey Tourism Cluster
Some museums you walk through, and some museums you experience. Papalote Museo del Niño Monterrey belongs to the second group, and not by chance: every decision, from how deep it was built to how it chooses its programming, responds to the same idea. Here, you don’t learn because someone explains something to you, but because something happens to you.
Since it opened, the museum has become one of the most important interactive learning spaces in northern Mexico, where children and families discover science, technology, the environment, art and innovation through play and experimentation.
Here are five facts you probably didn’t know about the museum, and that say a lot about how it is designed on the inside. Two of them are getting people talking right now: the IMAX Megascreen showing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey just as its director conceived it, and something few people know: the museum also opens its spaces for corporate, cultural and social experiences that would be hard to have anywhere else in the city.
1. It’s built underground
The Papalote Museo del Niño Monterrey building sits 16 to 18 meters below ground level. The main reason was not technical, but contextual: the museum lives inside Parque Fundidora, and the premise was not to intrude on the iconic buildings that give the park its identity. Putting up a new structure would have meant competing with them; burying it made it possible to blend into the surroundings with a different logic and build its own narrative. Construction took nearly ten years.
The journey begins long before you reach the first exhibit. The entrance is a descending circular ramp designed like an anthill, so visitors start exploring even before they enter the museum’s halls.
On the roof is a garden that brings together the four ecosystems found in Nuevo León. Together with its bioclimatic design, LEED certification, use of natural light and efficient temperature control, this makes the building an educational experience in itself.
As its General Director, José Antonio Pérez Contreras, puts it:
“The building teaches you exactly how to take care of the environment.”
And that is consistent with the idea the museum was founded on: I know my planet, I love it and I take care of it. Here, architecture is also part of learning.
2. Its IMAX Megascreen shows The Odyssey as Christopher Nolan conceived it
Inside that same building is a theater that has half the city talking.
The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s new film, was shot with 70 mm IMAX cameras, and very few theaters in the world can screen it in its original 1.43:1 aspect ratio, that is, showing the full image without cropping. In Mexico, that experience can be enjoyed at the IMAX Megascreen at Papalote Museo del Niño Monterrey.
In José Antonio Pérez’s words:
“We can show the film just as Nolan conceived it, respecting its original size, aspect ratio and format.”
At approximately 22 meters wide by 16 meters high, Papalote’s screen is one of the largest in the country.
But what’s interesting is that the same theater doesn’t rely only on big releases. The rest of the year it shows documentaries about dinosaurs, Exploring Nature, the human body and other scientific topics, chosen with the same educational criteria that guide the museum’s experiences.
In 2025 alone, it held 1,713 screenings, attended by nearly 120,000 people.
It isn’t a movie theater that also shows documentaries. It’s a museum theater whose programming is part of its educational model.
As José Antonio Pérez explains:
“Many people think they know the Great Barrier Reef, but seeing it on the IMAX Megascreen means discovering that it’s not just a landscape full of colorful fish: it’s one of the most complex and extraordinary ecosystems on the planet. Understanding the currents that sustain it completely changes what you’re seeing.”
And on a screen that size, the experience changes too.
How to get tickets
Check the schedule and buy online on the museum’s official website: papalotemty.org.mx/cartelera. There you’ll find current showtimes and direct access to ticket sales.
Follow them on social media. The museum regularly opens new screenings, adjusting its programming to fit its educational and documentary schedule. Announcements come out first on @papalotemuseomty (Instagram and Facebook).
3. It’s not just a museum: it’s a venue
Few people have it on their radar: Papalote also opens its spaces for corporate, institutional and social events. Its temporary exhibition halls, exhibit areas and IMAX Megascreen make it possible to host dinners, conferences, launches, brand activations and private gatherings in a setting very different from any traditional venue.
Its General Director confirms it:
“Imagine having dinner among the exhibits. Here, you can actually do that.”
For those organizing conferences, corporate dinners, brand activations or private events, the space stops being just a location and becomes part of the experience. After all, few venues let a meeting end with a tour of interactive exhibits or an IMAX screening.
If you’re looking for a venue for your next event or want to organize a group visit, the museum has a dedicated team for companies and institutions. Write to carmen.sanchez@papalotemty.org.mx
4. You’re greeted by a sea monster that lived in Nuevo León
As you walk down the ramp, the first thing that stops everyone in their tracks is the Aramberri Monster: an enormous marine reptile found in the municipality of the same name, in the south of the state. And that’s where the museum’s real mechanism kicks in: asking questions.
The first one is inevitable: what is a sea monster doing in Nuevo León?
The answer disarms anyone. It was an aquatic animal because this territory was under the sea about 150 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs we usually picture. It’s a fact that suddenly rearranges the idea you have of the place where you live.
That first moment also reveals the dynamic that repeats throughout the visit: the child runs, is amazed and asks; the adult follows along and, almost without realizing it, ends up answering questions they didn’t know they had either.
5. Here, the sign doesn’t say “do not touch”
Most of us learned to visit museums with our hands behind our backs. Papalote starts from the opposite idea: its motto is “Toco, juego y aprendo” (I touch, I play and I learn), and nowhere along the way will you find a sign asking you not to touch.
It’s not a matter of style; it’s the method. The museum calls this model informal learning: nobody sits you down in a classroom, nobody asks you to take notes, and yet you leave having learned something, precisely because you experienced it.
Behind that experience is an educational structure based on five disciplines (science, technology, environment, mathematics and art) that gives meaning both to its more than 70 interactive activities and to the documentaries programmed on the IMAX Megascreen.
That’s why a single visit can take you from calculating your carbon footprint to understanding where the sounds of nature come from, or creating a work of art out of geometric shapes, without any of it feeling like a class.
And what families take home isn’t just photos. It’s the conversation that opens up afterwards, and a good stretch of time together away from screens.
What’s next is also something to learn from
What’s coming follows the same logic. Papalote al Futuro is the evolution the museum already has underway: new experiences around topics that will shape the future, such as artificial intelligence, water and sustainability. The first changes will start to become visible around summer 2027.
Because if the world changes its questions, the museum also evolves to keep sparking curiosity in new generations.
If you haven’t experienced Papalote Museo del Niño Monterrey yet, this is a great time to discover why some museums you walk through… and some museums you experience.
We invite you to visit!
Parque Fundidora, Gate E6 · papalotemty.org.mx
Photos courtesy of Papalote Museo del Niño Monterrey.
