Historic Center of Mexico City - History

History

What is now the historic downtown of Mexico City roughly correlates with the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, which was founded around 1325. During the prehispanic era, the city developed in a planned fashion, with streets and canals aligned with the cardinal directions, leading to orderly square blocks. The island that the city was founded on was divided into four calpullis or neighborhoods that were divided by the main north-south roads leading to Tepeyac and Iztapalapa respectively and the west-east road that lead to Tacuba and to a dike into the lake, respectively. The calpullis were named Cuepopan, Atzacualco, Moyotla and Zoquipan, which had subdivisions and a "tecpan" or district council each. The intersection of these roads was the center of the city and of the Aztec world. Here were the Templo Mayor, the palaces of the tlatoani or emperors, palaces of nobles such as the "House of the Demons" and the "House of the Flowers". Also located here were the two most renowned Aztec schools: the Telpuchcalli for secular studies and the Calmecac for priestly training. When the Spaniards arrived, the city had aqueducts built by Montezuma Ilhuicamina and Ahuizotl as well as a large dike constructed to the east of the city.

After the Spanish conquest, this design remained largely intact, mostly due to the efforts of Alonso Garcia Bravo, who supervised much of the rebuilding of the city. This reconstruction conserved many of the main thoroughfares such as Tenayuca, renamed Vallejo; Tlacopan, renamed México Tacuba, and Tepeyac, now called the Calzada de los Misterios. They also kept major divisions of the city adding Christian prefixes to the names such as San Juan Moyotla, Santa María Tlaquechiuacan, San Sebastián Atzacualco and San Pedro Teopan. In fact, most of the centro historicos is built with the rubble of the destroyed Aztec city.

A number of people during this time, all Spaniards, accumulated vast wealth mostly through mining and commerce in the 17th and 18th centuries. This wealth is reflected in the various mansions scattered in the centro such as the Palace of Iturbide and Casa de Azulejos (House of Tiles). This house was built in the 16th century in Arab style but its namesake tiles were added in 1747 when the Count of the Valley of Orizaba ordered the Talavera tiles from Puebla.

In the early part of the 20th century, as a result of the Latin American posture of then-Minister of Public Education José Vasconcelos, many of the streets to the north and west of the Zocalo were renamed after Latin American countries.