Despite being the smallest state in Mexico, the Federal District, the country?s capital, is the largest and most complex city in the world. Its combination of history, culture and entertainment makes it an extremely attractive city. Architectural traces of its pre-Hispanic and vice-regal past are interspersed with modern buildings.
Its origins date from 1325, when the Mexica discovered the central islet in Texcoco Lake where they settled and eventually founded a powerful empire, which was defeated by the Spanish conqueror, Hernán Cortés. The colonial period produced so many magnificent churches, monasteries and palaces that it came to be known as "the city of palaces." The Federal District has an extremely complete infrastructure, with air and overland links to everywhere in the country, hotels, restaurants, amusement centers, cinemas, theaters and dozens of museums. The Mexico City Museum is located in the old residence of the Counts of Calimaya, by the residential decree that originated it. It is itself a historical monument that for its antiquity and its artistic merit constitutes a typical and valuable exponent of our most genuine architectural traditions. It is founded inside a plateresque work of the 16th. Century, apparently built in 1536.Its main door is considered as one of the most beautiful of Mexico City and it was brought from the Philippines in a Chinese Ship. The white cedar carving represents the shields of the family names of the Counts of Santiago of Calimaya: Mendoza, Castilla, Altamirano and Velasco.
The cathedral had the privilege of introducing new architectural styles that subsequently flourished throughout New Spain. Classic evolves into neoclassic and envelops the baroque play of style without detracting from it in any way. Much of this is owed to Manuel Tolsa who added the final touches to the project in 1813 by adding the balustrade and by enlarging the central cupola. After exiting the cathedral the adjoining vestry can be visited, the sober interior of which provides a sharp contrast to its capricious exterior facade. There is a difference of almost five feet between the levels of the opposing walls of the cathedral's huge structure, which stoically resists the vagaries of the urban landscape caused by the hustle and bustle of City life.Mexico City sprawls across the altoplano at 2240 meters altitude and is ringed by mountains. The reduced oxygen level causes incomplete combustion of gasoline. So automobile exhausts and industrial pollution can create a great smog, especially when the phenomenon of thermal inversion occurs. This happens when the warm Pacific air flows over the Valley of Mexico and traps the cooler polluted air at ground level which rapidly becomes even more polluted. |
