Colonial CDMX Tour - Trips by Jose Lozano Nava

CDMX

Colonial

After the Castellan conquest of the Mexica Empire, thanks to the alliances among Hernan Cortez and the subjugated people of Mesoamérica (plus diseases), Tenochtitlán became the capital of the kingdom of the New Spain; and a whole new city of monasteries and palaces emerged in XVI-XVIII century that you can still visit today and feel like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for a day.

This walking tour would take you through the historic district of Mexico City, the neighborhood where the Spaniards created palaces for the new nobility plus churches for the growing clergy; and where you can find many of the government buildings that’s still rule the country to this day. The area is characterized by hidden baroque churches, small businesses of all kinds, and baroque palaces covered in tezontle (red volcanic rock). The Hapsburgs created the third biggest city in the world (below Pekin and Istanbul) and the most cosmopolitan, with free and enslaved: Asians, Africans and Native Americans plus European immigrants (from the Iberian and Italian peninsula, plus the Flanders) all of them seeking fame and glory. Although Madrid was the former capital of the Spanish Empire, it was Mexico City during the XVII century the soul and back bone of the empire thanks to its geographical location (in the middle of the Philippines, Peru, Brasil, Caribbean and Iberia); “the city of palaces” became the major political, religious and commercial center that made possible the international trade route that overcame the Silk Road. The tour suggest visiting 3 palaces that one is a store/restaurant and 2 are small museums; 2 churches: a small one and a huge one plus the National Palace in the afternoon; and finally a Jesuit college covered with modern murals plus a palatial walking tour in the evening.