Chapultepec Castle

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Chapultepec Castle

Chapultepec Castle from below
Castillo de Chapultepec (Spanish)
Building
Architectural style Neo-romanticism, neoclassical, Neo-Gothic
Location Mexico City
Country Mexico
Construction
Started 1785–1863
Height 2,325 meters (7,628 ft) above sea level

Chapultepec Castle (Castillo de Chapultepec in Spanish) is located on top of Chapultepec Hill. The name Chapultepec stems from the Náhuatl word chapoltepēc which means "at the grasshopper's hill". It is located in the middle of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City at a height of 2,325 meters (7,628 ft) above sea level. The site of the hill was a sacred place for Aztecs, and the buildings atop it have served several purposes during its history; including that of Military Academy, Imperial residence, Presidential home, observatory, and presently, the Museo Nacional de Historia.[1]

It is the only castle in North America that was used to house sovereigns – the reigning Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, and his consort Empress Carlota, during the Second Mexican Empire.

Contents

[edit] Colonial period

Portrait of Viceroy of New Spain, Bernardo de Gálvez, Chapultepec.

In 1725 Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez ordered the construction of a country house at the highest point of Chapultepec Hill. Francisco Bambitelli, Lieutenant Colonel of the Spanish Army and engineer drew up the blueprint and began the construction on August 16 of the same year following a baroque style.

After Bambitelli's departure to Havana, Captain Manuel Agustín Mascaró took over the leadership of the project and during his tenure the works proceeded at a rapid pace. Mascaró was accused of building a fortress with the intent of rebelling against the Spanish Crown from there. His sudden death on November 8, 1786, fueled speculation that he may have been poisoned; however no evidence has ever been found supporting this claim.

Without an engineer in charge, the Crown ordered the building to be auctioned to a price equivalent to one fifth of the total already spent of the project. After finding no buyers Viceroy Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla y Horcasitas intended the building to house the General Archive of the Kingdom of the New Spain; that idea was not to prosper either despite already having the blueprints adapted for this purpose.

Alexander von Humboldt visited the site in 1803 and condemned the sale of the palace’s windows by the Royal Treasury as a way of raising funds for the Crown. The building was finally bought in 1806 by the municipal government of Mexico City.

[edit] Independence

The Colegio Militar, 1847

Chapultepec Castle was abandoned during the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and for many years later, until 1833. In that year the building was decreed to become the location of the Colegio Militar (Military Academy); as a sequence of several structural modifications had to be done, including the addition of the watchtower known as Caballero Alto ("Tall Knight").

On September 13, 1847, the Niños Héroes ("Boy Heroes") died defending the castle while it was taken by U.S. Marines during the Battle of Chapultepec of the Mexican-American War. They are honored with a large mural on the ceiling above the main entrance to the castle [1].

Several new rooms were built on the second floor of the palace during the tenure of President Miguel Miramón, who was also an alumnus of the Military Academy.

[edit] Second Mexican Empire

Maximilian I of Mexico by Winterhalter, 1864.

The castle started to acquire its current look during the Second Mexican Empire, when Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and his wife Empress Carlota established their Imperial residence there in 1864. The Emperor hired several European and Mexican architects; among them Julius Hofmann, Carl Gangolf Kayser, Carlos Schaffer, Eleuterio Méndez and Ramón Cruz Arango ity,[2] to perform the several projects which followed a neoclassical style of architecture and rendered the palace into a more habitable place. European architects Carl Gangolf Kayser and Julius Hofmann, worked on several other revival castles, including Neuschwanstein Castle[3] – built by Maximilian I of Mexico's Wittelsbach cousin Ludwig II of Bavaria twenty years after Chapultepec's renovation.

Botanist Wilhelm Knechtel was in charge of creating the aerial garden located on the roof of the building. Additionally, the Emperor brought from Europe countless pieces of furniture, objet d'art and many other fine household items that are still exhibited to this day.

During this period, the castle was still located at the outskirts of Mexico City. Maximilian ordered the construction of a straight boulevard (modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris), connecting the Imperial residence with the city centre, and named it Paseo de la Emperatriz ("Promenade of the Empress"). Following the reestablishment of the Republic in 1867 by President Benito Juárez and the end of the Reform War (Guerra de Reforma) the boulevard was renamed Paseo de la Reforma.

[edit] Modern era

View of the gardens and Caballero Alto, the former observatory.

The castle fell into disuse after the fall of the Second Mexican Empire in 1867. Almost ten years later, in 1876, a decree established an Astronomical, Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory on the site, which was opened in 1878. However, the observatory was only functional for five years after it was decided to move it to the former residence of the Archbishop in Tacubaya. The reason was to allow the return of the Colegio Militar to the premises as well as transforming the building into the presidential residence.

The palace underwent several structural changes from 1882 and during the term of President Porfirio Díaz. The other Presidents who made the palace their official residence were Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodríguez. It was used for a time as an official guest house or residence for foreign dignitaries.

Finally on February 3, 1939, President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed a law that established Chapultepec Castle as the seat of the National Museum of History (Museo Nacional de Historia) with the collections of the former National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, (now the National Museum of Cultures. The museum was opened on September 27, 1944. President Cárdenas moved the official Mexican presidential residence to Los Pinos, and never lived in Chapultepec Castle.

[edit] In popular culture

  • Chapultepec Castle has been used as a model of castle architecture to design buildings such as the 13th Regiment Armory (Sumner Armory), in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.[5]

[edit] Gallery

Facade and balcony of the west wing.

Staircase with marble lions imported from France.

Castle entrance, just beyond the gate.

Dining room.

A fountain at the Castle depicting a grasshopper, or Chapulín.

The watchtower known as Caballero Alto.

Castle grounds.

Monument to the Niños Héroes. Chapultepec Castle can be seen in the background.

View out of the Castle looking along the Paseo de la Reforma.

Storming of the Castle by American troops during the Mexican-American War.

Stained glass window also depicting a grasshopper, or Chapulín.

Looking up from the bottom of Chapultepec Hill.

Antique Photo of the castle.

Another view of the Castle.

Photo taken between 1880 and 1897.

East wing or Alcázar.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.mnh.inah.gob.mx/historia/hist_historicos.html
  2. ^ http://noticias.arquired.com.mx/shwArt.ared?idArt=218
  3. ^ http://eng.archinform.net/arch/3574.htm
  4. ^ http://www.corpseclothing.com/official_romeo__juliet_merchandise.html
  5. ^ http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/05/walkabout_with_7.php?gallery1484Pic=4#gallery-1484

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 19°25′16″N 99°10′55″W / 19.421°N 99.182°W / 19.421; -99.182


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