Mexico City is not just all colonial era architecture. Once beyond the inner Centro it all becomes VERY modern.
Photo above courtesy wikipedia
Above- Avenida Reforma which cuts diagonally across the city. Originally laid out by the Emperor Maximillian to take him from his castle at Chapultapec to the central area.
Above–The Angel of Independence officially known as Monumento a la Independencia is a victory column on a the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reforma. One of the most recognizable landmarks El Ángel as it is called was built in 1910 during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz by architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico’s War of Independence. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war.
Below the transition area between the new and the old.
Below- The Latino Torreamericana built in 1956 at 44 stories was not the first skyscraper in latin America. There were others between 1910 and 1930. However, it was the world’s first major skyscraper successfully built on highly active seismic land. The skyscraper notably withstood the 8.1 magnitude 1985 Mexico City earthquake without damage, whereas most structures in the downtown area were destroyed. The photo to the right is of one of the art deco buildings from the thirties.
Above and below the Soumaya Museum where Carlos Slim has his eclectic collection.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia
Above- The view from Chapultapec Castle toward Centro.
Chapultepec Park-at 1700 acres is the largest city park in Latin America. The name “Chapultepec” means “at the grasshopper hill” in Nahuatl and refers to a large rock formation that is the center of the park’s first section. Originally, this area was a forest outside of Tenochtitlan and once considered sacred in Pre-Columbian times.
The Chapultapec Park and the hill has been inhabited since Pre-Columbian times when it was a retreat for the Aztec rulers. In the colonial period the short lived Emperor Maximillian made his residence there. Now it is a gigantic park with Museums, botanical gardens and lakes providing both leisure and lungs for the city.
Right in the early days there was a hacienda with water viaducts that brought fresh water to the city from this hill.
Maximilian I (1832-1867) was born Archduke and Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia.
He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I. He accepted an offer by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. France had invaded the Mexican Republic in the winter of 1861. Seeking to legitimize French rule in the Americas, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy for him. He had the support of the French army and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists hostile to the liberal administration of new Mexican President Benito Juárez. Once there in Mexico he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864.
Maximilian never completely defeated the Mexican Republic; Forces led by President Benito Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian’s rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865 the United States (which had been too distracted by its own civil war to confront the French invasion) began more explicit aid to President Juárez. After the French armies withdrew from Mexico in 1866 his self-declared empire collapsed and he was captured and executed in Queretaro in 1867. His wife- Charlotte of Belgium (Carlota) had already left for Europe earlier to try to build support for her husband’s regime. After his execution she suffered an emotional collapse and was declared insane. A very sad story.
Left– Manet’s Execution of Emperor Maximilian which took place on June 19, 1867. Below- Juarez with sword in hand and a new Constitution.
Three photos above courtesy wikipedia
We arrived at top of the hill a bit late in the day and only had a short time before the doors were closing. Consequently we did not see a lot of the building and so will have to return another day.
Below -Malachite doors and urns !
Above- “From the Halls of Montezuma…” .On one of the ceilings is a painting of the Ninos Heroes. A group of military cadets who held out against the Americans at the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847. A band of cadets were at the Castle (which was then an academy) when it was attacked. Near the end of the battle six of them decided to jump to their deaths from the castle rather than be taken prisoner. These six are referred to as the “Niños Héroes” and are honored by a monument near where their bodies fell. Below a U.S. flag that is in the museum at Chapultapec. As one Mexican President said…”So far from God. So close to the United States”.
Avenida Reforma (Below) passes along the edge of the park and the section with The Museum of Modern Art and The Anthropology Museum.
Apart from London, Mexico City has more museums than anywhere else. See next blog for more on those museums.
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