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Chapultepec Castle

Coordinates: 19°25′16″N 99°10′55″W / 19.421°N 99.182°W / 19.421; -99.182
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Chapultepec Castle
Castillo de Chapultepec Template:Sp icon
View of Chapultepec Castle from the East
Map
General information
Architectural styleNeo-romanticism, neoclassical, Neo-Gothic
LocationMexico City
CountryMexico
Construction startedc. 1785
Completed1863
Height2,325 meters (7,628 ft) above sea level
Design and construction
Architect(s)Eleuterio Méndez, Ramón Cruz Arango ity, Julius Hofmann, Carl Gangolf Kayser, Carlos Schaffer
Other designersMaximilian I of Mexico

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.

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 United States forces 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].

The United States Marine Corps honors the Battle of Chapultepec and the subsequent occupation of Mexico City through the first line of the Marine's Hymn, From the Halls of Montezuma. A 'blood' stripe is also worn on the Marine Corps blue trousers by NCOs (E-4 to E-9) and Officers to recognize the blood that was shed by the Cadets and their tenacity.[2]

Contrary to popular lore, the USMC did not actually take the castle. Only a small (40 men) detachment of Marines was even involved. The United States Army's 3d US Infantry Regiment breached the walls of the Castle and ran the American Flag up the flagpole of the Citadel. The Marines helped mop up remaining resistance, including the final battle with the Academy Cadets. This flagpole was later cut down and made into the 3d Infantry Regiment's bandmaster baton. The Regiment still holds the 'Chapultepec Baton' and it is on display in the Regimental Museum in Ft. Myer, VA. This event also led to the Regiment being honored with the title 'The Old Guard'.

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.

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 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,[2] to design the several projects, which followed a neoclassical style and made the palace more habitable. European architects Kayser and Hofmann worked on several other revival castles, including Neuschwanstein Castle[3] – built by Maximilian'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, objets d'art and other fine household items that are exhibited to this day.

At this time, the castle was still located on 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 and the Champs-Élysées in Paris), to connect 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.

Modern era

File:Castillo de Chapultepec 032.jpg
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.

  • 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]

See also

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


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