Ruta Azteca: Tepotzotlan..... The viceroyalty route

Tepotzotlan

Hey guys, this time I want to show you the viceroyalty route, the beginning of the Royal road of the Interior land or the old way to Santa Fe, that was the old commercial route since the middle of the XVI century until the XIX century, the Spanish, had used this road to trade with silver and the mercury all the way to Albuquerque.

Located just forty minutes away from the city of Mexico, this town stores the art of the colonial era, inside the ancient jesuit college of saint Martin and saint Francisco Javier, now named National museum of the Viceroyalty.

But first we had time to wander around by another municipality owned by the state of Mexico, and I mean Tlalnepantla de Baz.

Hidden within the urban area, it seems that it has nothing to show, Tlalnepantla that means, "in between the land" in the old nahuatl language, is best known for being an industrial area, in addition to being marked by the tragedy of 1984, where thousand of people were killed by a gas explosion that was originated in the facilities of a governmental company.

Founded in the late of the XII century by the chichimecas and their leader, Xolotl, the city of Tenayuca (place surrounded by walls) was the main place of the political power, still we can see the remains of the pyramid, you may reach this place, driving down through the Mario Colin avenue, in 1914 a group of archaeologist discovered a square basement with twin temples, one for Quetzalcoatl, and the other one for Tlaloc, this pyramid is surrounded by snakeheads, petroglyphs and two xiuhcoatls (snakes of fire). These xiuhcoatls were the most powerful weapon of Huitzilopochtli, the warrior god associated with the sun, the legend says that he was conceived when his mother Coatlicue kept a ball of feathers that fell from the sky when she was sweeping the temples in the Sierra of Tollan, his four hundred brothers when they noticed that their mother was pregnant, they tried to hide the disgrace, murdering the newborn, instigated by their sister Coyolxauhqui, but at that moment, he was born, killing most of their brothers, Huitzilopochtli took the xiuhcoatls as an axe and destroyed her sister, she was dismembered when she fell through the hills.

Xiuhcoatl

Two kilometers ahead we found another pyramid, Acatitlan (reedbed), in the village of Saint Cecilia, also founded by the chichimecas who settled in the Sierra of Guadalupe, this pyramid was used as a ceremonial center. You may visit the center of Tlalnepantla and the Corpus Christi Cathedral, now we continue our way to Tepotzotlan.

We arrived to Tepotzotlan twenty minutes later, but by now, we will skip the center, and we continue down the road to visit the arches of Xalpa, a monumental aqueduct from the colonial era, early in the century XVIII, builded by the jesuit community to brought the water from the sierra to the ranch of Xalpa, has a lenght of 400 meters and a height of 62 meters, was conditioned as a ecotourism park, where you may find suspension bridges, grills and a zip line.

We return to the center of Tepotzotlan and the mandatory stop is the national museum of the viceroyalty, the visitor should take the time to see the facade of this temple, the architecture is completely baroque, from the period churrigueresque, but this is just the beginning, inside there's a chapel made of sheet coated with 23 carat gold, is awesome, but to me, I really don't know what to think, on one hand I will always admire the work of the mexican artisans, on the other, as the Spanish rock band Mägo de Oz said, gold that does not serve to feed the hungry mouths, there has always been poverty, and the churches have always been full of gold, but that's another issue. sometimes the INAH use this chapel for concerts, we continue walking through the halls of this museum, until we reach the gardens. We left the museum and we walked through the village.

Tepotzotlan means in between the hunchbacks, I guess is because of the shape of the hills that surrounds the town, on the main square is the olive garden, just outside the museum, on the street there's to many vendors that offers local garments, breads made of cheese and walnut, very tasteful, the main handcraft is the wrought iron.

Tepotzotlan it's also known by the traditional pastorelas, a musical performance that narrates the adventures of the virgin Mary and Saint Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, sometimes in October a medieval fest is held.