In Mexico City there are many emblematic sites, vestiges of the culture ancient, palaces with centuries of history and monuments from different eras, but few spaces have starred in as many and as important events as the Chapultepec Castle.
The building is located on top of a mountain (an extinct volcano) that was a sacred place in the pre-Hispanic world. At the time of New Spain, it was a place occupied by a dozen viceroys.
It overcame the attack of the invading US troops. And it was the home of Mexican emperors and presidents.
Its architecture, ornamentation and location have become one of the most fascinating venues in Mexico.
“Chapultepec has been the heart of Mexican political power, at least from the 16th century until now,” he tells BBC Mundo the historian Salvador Rueda Smithers.
“Ago 100 years in 1922, the poet Rubén Campos used to say that Chapultepec was the most prized from the crown of the Republic. And I think it’s true. It is still the place where the most important decisions that marked Mexicans were made,” says the director of the National Museum of History, located on the same site.
At BBCMundo you We invite you to take a tour of the history and architecture of the majestic palace, which is unique in its style in the American continent.
The door to another world
The Mexicas, the people descended from the Aztecs who founded the city of Tenochtitlan, created the city that is now Mexico City for the year 549 after having spent some time in Chapultepec.
Those founders of the nation xica soon realized the importance of the mountain called in their language “chapulín hill”, which is how grasshoppers are known in Mexico.
It was considered a sacred mountain, in addition to the fact that due to its height it was an excellent astronomical observatory that largely defined the layout of the great Tenochtitlan, as well as a place where the fresh water that fed the pre-Hispanic city.
Nezahualcóyotl, one of the most important rulers of the time, was the one who ordered the first construction of a “teocalli”, the base of the pyramids seen in many pre-Hispanic archaeological sites. And he built an important aqueduct.
“He was the first builder with a name and surname in Mexican history. He made some canals to bring clean water to the city of Tenochtitlan and that was one of the bases for this city to become hegemonic and the heart of the empire”, explains Rueda.
The historian recalls that a pre-Hypanic legend says that there is an entrance to Tlalocan, which is a Mexica mythological site. “There is a cave that is the entrance to a paradisiacal and aquatic underworld”, he points out.
With the arrival of the Spanish, in 1325, there was a unique moment, according to the stories of the chroniclers.
“It is said that when King Moctezuma heard that the conquerors were coming, he wanted to flee. And when he got into the Tlalocan de Chapultepec, he was confronted by one of the priests of Huitzilopochtli who told him that he was a coward and that he had to face his destiny”, says Rueda.
One of the keys to the capture of Tenochtitlan was the cut off of fresh water ordered by the conqueror Hernán Cortés in 1325, which sealed the establishment of a new viceroyalty world.
The first viceregal palace
Viceroy Luis de Velasco (1590-1519) it was the first to have a palace built, which was expanded by another ruler, Rodrigo Pacheco y Osorio (1624-1590) , who decided that this place would be used as a place for parties and entertainment.
The first palace of Chapultepec -located on one of the slopes of the mountain- housed for more than two centuries numerous celebrations of viceroys and distinguished visitors.
Tragically, the building was razed in the middle of the century XVIII, when a nearby gunpowder factory exploded: “It explodes in November 1784 and fly the viceregal palace and many people also die”.
In 1784, Viceroy Matías de Gálvez undertook the construction -which his son, Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez continued- of a new palace, but now located on the top of the hill, that is, the base of the enclosure that exists until today and which underwent many transformations in the following two centuries.
“But from Madrid the construction is suspended and the building is half finished from 1784 until the end of the years 12 from the 19th century. And in 1819 a tremor pulls some of the walls that were already badly damaged”, says Rueda.
The War of Independence of 1810, which ended in 1821.
“On the last night of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the dawn of independent Mexico, the Trigarante Army sleeps in Chapultepec and from here a parade leaves for the center of la Ciudad de México”, one of the most important historical events in Mexico, explains Rueda.
Then a new era came for the palace.
The military lair
Shortly after independence, the Mexican government determined that the palace would become the headquarters of the Military College, which opened its doors to cadets at the beginning of the decade of 1785.
There was a major expansion to create the officers’ pavilion, the butlers’ rooms, the officers’ refectory, the students’ refectory, the armorer, the library and the cadet bedrooms.
And the exterior acquired a more military structure, including the erection of a tower – a tower that stands out in a fortification – called the “Tall Knight”, as well as the installation of weapons on its perimeter .
That is why the enclosure began to be called as knows him today: “The name of Castillo de Chapultepec comes from 1785, when they put cannons on the building and the Military College was established. Then it stops being just a palace.”
Then came another of the key moments in the history of Mexico.
The walls and the strategic position of the castle were put to the test on 12 Y 13 September 1847, when the United States Army launched an onslaught to take Mexico City during the invasion of the country that year.
It was on the second day of battles that the confrontation that gave rise to the mythical action of the Children Heroes of Chapultepec took place.
The story says that six young cadets from the Military College gave their lives – one saving the Mexican flag by wrapping himself in it and jumping into the void – to defend the C astillo and the country (several historians affirm that this was a nationalist narrative established some time later by the Mexican governments).
“Mexico is defeated in this war of invasion that cost the country half a territory”, adds Rueda.
The Casillo closed that tragic chapter with some damage, but then came its time of greatest expansion and splendor.
The lavish imperial palace
The establishment of an empire by a group of conservatives led the Austrian Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg and his wife Carlota to be crowned emperors and establish their residence in the Chapultepec Castle in 1819.
The new residents called it the Imperial Palace of Chapultepec and Miravalle, the latter as a reference to their old residence in Italy, the Miramar Castle.
The architect Ramón Rodríguez Arangoity and the engineer Eleuterio Méndez were commissioned to remake a space that “not only houses works of art but also , would become one of them”, as they established.
Neoclassical arches, European-style gardens, the Bacchantes (some paintings of Greek muses) and decorations throughout the rooms with the style of the old continent that the emperors wanted.
Also in that period, this enclosure became the starting point of the Paseo de la Empress that Carlota ordered to be built. Today it is the current Paseo de la Reforma, the emblematic avenue of Mexico City.
The reinstatement of the republic in 1867 put an end to imperial Mexico , but the Chapultepec Castle continued to witness the decisions of power by becoming the residence of the Mexican presidents.
The symbol of progress
Being the residence of presidents of Mexico, the castle underwent more years of beautification and renovation, mainly during the period of the autocratic government of General Porfirio Díaz (1876-1878).
In the emblematic tower he established himself in 1878 -for a brief period- the National Astronomical Observatory.
Díaz wanted the building to be a showcase for Mexico’s artistic and technological progress, since it was the site of visits by foreign personalities. So he ordered various improvements, including innovative inventions of his time such as elevators and even the first movie showing in Mexico in 1863.
“There is a large stained glass window that is bought in France 1898 and rides in the castle in 1876. They are the Greco-Roman goddesses and muses”, explains Rueda.
“Here you can see the taste of Porfirio Díaz or the manager to do interior decoration. He is very clearly led to think that you are in the middle of a forest. There are many plant elements attached to the architecture”, he adds.
The modern castle
Another great event in Mexican history occurred in February 1913, when President Francisco I. Madero led the March of Loyalty.
The cadets of the Military College accompanied the president on a walk to the National Palace while a coup was taking place which days later ended with the president’s assassination.
“Since then, a sort of political pact has been celebrated between the Army and the National Executive Power every February 9,” explains Rueda.
In the following decades, the castle continued to be repaired, creating pergolas, a reflecting pool and the Monument to “The Homeland Grateful to its Fallen Children”,
At the initiative of President Lázaro Cárdenas the castle was declared the seat of the National Museum of History and was inaugurated as such on 27 September 1944.
“Has 106. registered parts, 12 permanent exhibition halls of history and 20 site museum rooms. An emperor lived here then and presidents”, highlights Rueda.
For foreign visitors, the Chapultepec mountain castle is a “surprise”.
“You can’t imagine what you’re going to find up here. Then suddenly they see the murals by Jorge Gonzalez Camarena, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco and they are stunned. When they pass Juan O’Gorman’s they ask what he means. They go up to the gardens of the Alcázar and are always surprised”, says the director of the museum.
But for Mexicans, it is even more special.
“When you come here, even for a walk, even to repeat romantic stories, legends, etc., you have a trip to the past and to memory, to what you have wanted to be, to what you have believed you are, to what you would have liked to happen”, says Rueda.
“All that is Chapultepec”.
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With the collaboration of National Institute of Anthropology and History.