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The Silk Route - World Travel: Puebla City, Mexico

Mexico: Puebla
July 2016

Edificio Baramar, Puebla City, Mexico

 

The beautiful, vibrant city of Puebla has a wide range of architectural styles, a lively Zocalo and colourful barrios.

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The Zocalo from Vittorio's.
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Ceramic plaque erected by the Instituto de Geografia Nacional de Puebla in gratitude to the founders and builders of Puebla de los Angeles on its 400th anniversary. Av. de la Reforma.

 

 

Puebla is a Spanish colonial city, founded in 1531 in the early years of the conquest.

The city has a strong Catholic heritage - there seems to be a church on every street corner! - and much sixteenth and seventeenth century architecture remains in place, including the arcades around the central square, the Zocalo.

It is celebrated for its wealth of colonial architecture, including many of the afore-mentioned churches, the beautiful Talavera ceramics, and as the home of molé - a spicy chocolate chilli sauce.

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The Zocalo and Cathedral

We had a very good meal at Vittorio's on the Zocalo one evening. The Margarita cocktails were superb: I had a classic and Andrew a Tamarind.

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Angels on the cathedral railings.
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Episcopal Palace - the Palafox Library.
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Margaritas at Vittorio's.

My steak in a red wine and balsamic vinegar sauce with parmesan mash was excellent, followed by a melting Chocolate Volcano dessert. Andrew had jamon serrano pizza; main courses with Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon and Andrew finished with an artisanal limoncello! Quite a meal - especially as we'd started by sharing garlic bread!

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Cathedral gates with the red and white Episcopal Palace behind.

The building of the cathedral took almost 75 years from 1575. A rather stolid building, it stands in a spacious yard surrounded by iron railings and red and white buildings. Angels stand on the pillars of the railing - the city is also known as Puebla de los Angeles.

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A quiet corner in the cathedral. The beautiful carved wooden porch is a common feature here.

 

 

Next door to the cathedral is the Episcopal Palace, most famous as the home of the magnificent Palafox Library, established in 1646, which has some of the oldest printed books in the world.

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Casona de la China Poblana

 

 

We stayed in the beautiful Hotel Boutique Casona de la China Poblana.

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Cosy upper level of our room.

According to the hotel literature, it is named after an Indian princess, born in 1608, who was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates. She was transported to Mexico where she was supposed to be sold to a Spanish nobleman but, with a changing political situation, the sale collapsed. Instead the ship's Captain de Sosa gave her to his wife.

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Ceramic statue of la China Poblana in the courtyard dining area of the hotel.

They had no children and the girl was treated as a daughter rather than a servant. Her exotic ways and clothing earned her the nickname "China Poblana". When her adoptive parents died she was given lodging in this house by its owner Hipolito del Castillo de Alba. She was a pious and good woman whose beautiful gowns composed of an embroidered shirt, skirt and shawl became the typical Poblana female dress. When she died in 1688 she was placed in the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus next door to her home.

We had a fabulous room, on two levels with a luxurious bathroom, a pleasure to come back to after a long day at the archaeological sites or exploring Puebla.

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Margaritas in the China Poblana.
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Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

 

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Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus
A churrigueresque - Spanish Baroque - facade.

The 18th century Jesuit Iglesia de la Compania de Iglesia is very beautiful, the facade and twin bell towers covered with delicate white reliefs, quite restrained for Baroque in that every square inch is not adorned! The church stands adjacent to the associated college. Jesuits have always had a strong educational mission and schools are more often than not founded alongside their churches.

 

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Puebla is credited with the best and original molé - a sauce usually made from chillis, chocolate, assorted spices and other ingredients, though recipes are as numerous as the cooks who prepare them, and reputedly taking days to create.



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Pulpit in the Church of Santo Domingo.

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Pulpit detail, Church of Santo Domingo.

 

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Chapel of the Rosary

 

We have had the sauce in various places in Mexico but had to try it again in the place of its origin. Made well it's quite a unique taste, spicy, smoky with a chocolate edge - hard to describe!

 

The Chapel of the Rosary in the Church of Santo Domingo is highly regarded among Baroque enthusiasts for its wealth of gilding, but all the fussiness does nothing for me.

I did, however, like the black and white pulpit in the church itself! It is rather crude inlaid marble (it's not the Taj Mahal!), somewhat damaged, but nicely designed in restrained geometrics.

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Rolling cigars by hand.
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General Ignacio Zaragoza monument.

 

In the north east of the city are remnants and memorials of a more modern kind. Two forts were the scene of a victory of Mexican forces over a much bigger French army on May 5, 1862. May the 5th - Cinco de Mayo - is now a national holiday. There is a fine fountain monument to the Mexican commander, Ignacio Zaragoza north of the forts.

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Barrio Xanenetla

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Templo de Santa Inés, Xanenetla.

Our guide also took us into the Barrio Xanenetla just south west of the forts, to give us a glimpse of where the people lived and, in particular, to see the murals with which they enliven their buildings.

 

 

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Many walls are covered with colourful, imaginative scenes, very nicely executed.

Xanenetla is one of the oldest barrios in the city.

It was a really nice visit, more interesting than endless churches (though, of course, some are not to be missed!).

 

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Templo del Antiguo Hospital de Nuestra Señora de Belén

We walked around the city quite a bit looking at the different architecture which varies wildly from Spanish colonial, through Baroque to Art Deco.

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Edificio Arronte Facultad de Filosofía y Letras BUAP
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Edificio Arronte Facultad de Filosofía y Letras BUAP
We had seen a building in Mexico City with stone cannon - there to remind the locals to behave!
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Casa de los Muñecos - BUAP Museo Universitario
A magnificent facade of Azulejo tiles.

 

Puebla has what distinguishes many an attractive city - a wealth of different styles of architecture randomly distributed, some colourful, some restrained, others fanciful and over-the-top. A mix of not only styles but materials and embellishments: ironwork balconies, decorative brickwork, tiled facades, pastel-painted walls.

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Edificio Puebla at 555 Av. de la Reforma.

 

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Cine Reforma
Beautiful classic Art Deco from 1939.
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Av. Don Juan de Palafox y. Mendoza on the Zocalo.

 

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Edificio Baramar
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Templo de San Ildefonso
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The Edificio Baramar on Av. de la Reforma is a surprising and beautiful example of the diverse architectural styles in the city. Its stepped geometric roof line decorations, arched window embrasures and the arrangements of colourful patterned tiles are clearly influenced by Islamic designs.

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