We made another exploration to Mexico City (or just plain Mexico as the Mexicans call it) this week. We were able to see some things that we were not able to see on our previous superficial visit. Still we were unable to see very much. There is so many incredible sites to see, that it would take months of non-stop exploration to see everything. Our focus of this visit was the Centro Historico. This included visits to the National Cathedral, the Templo Mayor, the Zócalo (pronounced so-co-lo), the National Museum of Art, and a few smaller art museums. All were absolutely amazing!
Thursday we were left to our own devises, and that was when we did most of our exploring. Friday we met up with some some friends, and colleagues, from our school. I hope you enjoy the pictures. As always, click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture. All comments are most certainly welcome!
Monumento a la Independencia (El Ángel)
One of the modern buildings in Mexico City, this one happens to be the HSBC bank building.
Mexico City Zócalo (or City Square). The flag in the center of this square is ENORMOUS! One one side of the square is the Presidential Palace, on another is the National Cathedral, on the next is the Supreme Court of Mexico, and on the fourth is something called Nacional Monte de
Piedad. The Nacional Monte de Piedad was originally set up as a sort of national pawn shop set up by the Spanish rulers in the late 1500's. It has since evolved into a huge collection of second-hand sellers.
360° View of the Zócalo
View of the Presidential Entrance for the Presidential Palace. The bell above the entrance is the Mexican version of the Liberty Bell. This bell was rung in the town of Deloras Hidalgo by Father Miguel Hidalgo to signify the beginning of the Mexican Independence. It was moved here in the 1800's. The palace is on the site where palaces have sat since the time of the Aztecs. When the Spanish arrived this was the spot where they originally met with Montezuma, and later killed him. After that the Spanish built a palace here for the Governor of Nueva Espana which was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. This current incarnation of the building was constructed in the early 1800's.
National Cathedral
The Cathedral, which dominates the Zócalo square on the north side as the National Palace does on the east, is one of the oldest and largest churches in the western hemisphere. It stands on the south-western part of the old Aztec temple precinct, once occupied by the Wall of Skulls (Tzompantli) and the Temple of Xipe Tótec. The original building, begun in 1525, was later partly demolished and partly rebuilt; the present structure dates from 1563, although the definitive plans were prepared at the end of the 16th c. and the beginning of the 17th by the architects Claudio de Arciniega, Juan Gómez de Mora and Alonso Pérez de Castañeda. Although the construction of this massive building of basalt and grey sandstone extended over more than 250 years and thus shows a mingling of various styles, it nevertheless achieves a notably harmonious effect. In spite of the two openwork towers in Neo-Classical style and certain other features, the façade creates a predominantly Baroque impression with its massive volutes and pairs of twisted columns. The bell-towers, by José Damián Ortiz de Castro, were completed in 1793, the statues (attributed to Manuel Tolsá) of Faith, Hope and Charity on the clock-tower were done in 1813. The bells are unusual in their method of hanging and vary greatly in size; one of them, known as "Guadalupe", weighs no less than 5600kg (5.5 tonnes).
Interior
The Cathedral, with a main nave and two lateral aisles on either side, is 118 m (387 ft) long, 54 m (177 ft) wide and 55 m (180 ft) high. There are fourteen subsidiary altars as well as the high altar. Like the exterior, the interior shows a mingling of all the different styles and fashions prevailing during the colonial period. Its great glory is the richly carved Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes, 1718-39) behind the high altar, with a retablo by Jerónimo de Balbás, a sculptor of the Churrigueresque school from Seville. The retablo, which follows the form of the apse, has paintings by Juan Rodriguez, including an Adoration of the Kings ("La Adoración de los Reyes") and an Assumption ("Asunción de María"), to which the Cathedral is dedicated. The chapel west of the high altar contains the mortal remains of the Mexican Emperor Agustin de Iturbide. In the third chapel on the left from the main doorway note the statue of the "Señor del Cacao", which dates prior to the original church and to which the Indians offered their contribution towards the cost of building the Cathedral in the form of cocoa-beans. The other chapels and side altars contain some notable pictures, mainly of the Baroque period.
The very fine carved cedarwood choir-stalls (by Juan de Rojas, 1696) were destroyed by fire in 1967 and have since been restored.
At the south end of the choir, opposite the main entrance, stands the Altar de Perdón (Altar of Mercy), the Churrigueresque retablo of which (by Jerónimo de Balbás) with a painting of the Virgin by Simón Pereyns (1568), was also damaged in the 1967 fire; it has since been restored.
Hanging in the center of the main nave is an enormous plumb-bob. This devise indicates how much the building is leaning, as it has been steadily sinking ever since it was built.
Art Museums
This is an exhibit from one of the smaller museums we went to (I cannot recall the name of the artist).
Another exhibit we were lucky enough to see was by Isabel Muñoz. These photographs are amazing and the subjects just seem to jump off the page. You can visit her website by clicking
here.
Templo Mayor
In 1519, when the first Spaniards marched into the city of Tenochtitlán, it was the heart of the Aztec empire. Founded on a lake island in 1325, the city was the nerve center of political and economic control of an extensive area of Native America. More than 200,000 people lived in an urban area measuring almost 15 square kilometers, which included approximately 80 civil and religious buildings. The most important of these was the Templo Mayor, or Main Temple, on the crest of which were found two shrines; one dedicated to the god of war Huizilopochtli, and the other to the rain god Tláloc. Today, you can still see the temple's pyramidal base, enlarged seven times in 200 years. To one side of the site is the Casa de los Caballeros Aguila, House of the Men-Eagle, which once housed an ancient order of elite warriors.
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