Chapultepec’s Castle – Mexico City

Maximilian of Augsburg (Austria), Emperor to México

Entrance to the Castle of Chapultepec.

This is the short story about The Castle of Chapultepec

I was organizing my photographs and found a nice deck I had not posted yet, and they are quite recent, so I will use them here and tell you a story.

Before I start I will give you some general highlights about this place. To start with, the place where the Castle was built is three thousand years old know as Bosque de Chapultepec or Chapultepec Forest. You should note by now the catchy Chapultepec name, which for all and sundry is a Nahuatl word (tongue spoken by Aztecs and Mexicas ) that stands for “Grasshopper Hill” (Chapulli – Grasshopper/ Tepe – Hill).  Without any intend we are going way far into history.

To make a long story short (you are not getting away yet, though) the Castle had many uses:

Its construction began in 1778 as a summer house for the viceroy (forget about Camp David!), It happens to be the only Royal Castle in America (America the continent not the country, and let’s not go there this time.) It was also used as a gunpowder warehouse to a military academy in 1841 where also a battle took place: the Mexican-American war (September 13th, 1846 – February 2nd, 1848). Can we have California et. al. back?

During 1864-1867 it was the official residence to the Emperor Maximilian I (July 6, 1832, Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria /June 19, 1867, Cerro de las Campanas), the younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I, who accepted an offer from Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico.

Spoiler alert: having an Austrian emperor would be the outcome of the infamous “Batalla de Puebla” / Puebla’s Battle where Mexicans fought against the French men, and that gave origin to the Mexican celebration known in many places and abroad as “5 de Mayo” (fair to say this is not Mexico’s Independence day which date is September 16th).

This is getting interesting, isn’t it?, and I haven’t told you about that when the Emperor died (by a firing squad), they had to trim his legs because he was too tall to fit his coffin. Don’t get me started to talk about his wife who went insane after all this ordeal and people would call her  “Carlota la loca” (Carlota, the crazy one).

After this tragic chapter and some years later Chapultepec’s Castle became the residence for the country’s presidents between 1884 and 1935, and today it is the National Museum of history , Chapultepec forest became Chapultepec Park which I may add is known as the green lung of Mexico City, it is at least two times bigger than Central Park of New York with more than 686 hectares where many cultural events take place.

Yes it has a lake.

I took this photograph some years ago when I wrote a post about Reforma Avenue and Castillo de Chapultepec. Not easy to take a brand new one since I had to go up through the Angel of Independence Memorial and that is not accessible now. At the distance, this is how the Castle looks like, and as you can appreciate it is on the top of a hill.

Just to give you an idea of its dimensions, here is a map of the area:

The Castle has many accesses being the main one by Reforma Avenue, where there are many Museums. Actually, Mexico City has 160 museums, just 85 on the area where the Castle is at.

Why Mexico City Could be the Next Paris

Official listing of the museums in Mexico City 2020. (Spanish)

I will update this post once in a while to keep adding information that may be of interest.

In the meantime, enjoy!

Entrance to the Castle’s Garden

The main square of the Castle. It is the main entrance to the site.

The pergola in the garden, where you can see the woods, lake and the buildings on Reforma Avenue.

This is the view from the pergola. You can see many buildings: Hotels and offices.

At the Castle’s Garden there are some monuments and fountains.

The access to upper floors covered by paintings of Mexican artists.

Maximilian Chariot very well preserved.

One of my favorite rooms: The Piano Room. There is a mirror that goes from floor to ceiling flanked by two portraits.

On the left Maximilian and on the right Carlota his wife.

A waiting room.

A view the City down the hall.

A view to Reforma Avenue. One of Mexico’s main avenues that hold many museums, hotels and other landscapes.

Stairs connecting upper floors.

A waiting room

Another access to upper floors.

The upper floor that one has access to. There is a higher corridor, but there is no access to it. It surrounds part of the Castle.

Marvelous Stain Glass work. There about six of them along a corridor.

Marvelous Stain Glass work. There about six of them along a corridor.

Stained glass corridor leading to the Caste’s rooms.

Upper garden and Mirador to the city.

A painting with some of the motives that the Castle has.

Note that on the top, there is  a horse with an American Flag representing the Mexican- US war.

The tower in the Castle

An opposit view to the Castle’s entrance

Turists. Same turists, differnt angle. 🙂

On the main entrance this painting is on the ceiling. It represents one of tne scenes of the US invasion to Mexico.

One of the cadetts of the Castle, at that time it was a Military School, grab the Mexican flag and jumped off to the Cliff. Paintngs for famous Mexican muralists

The green cups and door made out of malachite stone were a gift from Rusian Emperor Zar I

A view to the City from the main Castle’s square.

Maximiliam of Augsburg, Emperor to Mexico

Mexican Murals Mexican Murals, This by Gonzalez Camarena brother to the Mexican Color TV inventor. (That is another story some place on this blog.)

A painting representing the Mexican France Battle of Puebla. This battle is the reason to Cinco de Mayo

Mexican President and Dictator Porfirio Diaz. The reason there was no more Austrian Emperor.

He fought France and after 30 years of dictatorship in Mexico he finally was exhiled and lived his last years….. in France.

 

 

A view from atop.

(Not a photo of mine but worth looking)

Doves – Stained Glass

One of my hobbies, stained glass. Once I saw a friend working with glass, that is when I literally fell in love. (with the crafting). I thought it was easy and that I was made to it. It took me a while to learn that it was not as easy as I thought!

Took me years to learn and I think I did it well. Here are some photos of the process of this piece, from the finished one to the starting steps.

Stained Glass Doves. (30 centimeters diameter)

The design. So very important to have good design. If it is well performed you have a pretty good chance that it will turn out good. In this step you will see if the piece is doable or impossible.

For this one,in order to keep the dove balanced I drew one and then I transport it to make 3 match.

After the drawing is finished, you make 2 copies of it on cardboard. One will be the guide for assembly and the other will be cut  into pieces to be used as patterns over the glass, and the cut it.

Once all the pieces are cut they are refined (cut all excedents to make them match to the cardboard pattern), to be covered with copper foil and start putting the puzzle together, one by one….

Once they are all together, you start soldering… There are some other steps, but I will just stop here. Don’t want to get you bored with details.

Kokopelli

Kokopelli, the flute player symbol of abundance, joy and fertility. What a better wish for this time of the year?

This is a stained glass piece I made and it is the final look. It was a challenging one because of the irregular forms on his/her body trying to resemble patches on. also the curves along the whole design. I used a technique called copper foil which virtue is that it is harder to work than using came along the glass.

It is about 70 centimeters high by 37 wide.

Often depicted as a humpbacked flute player, this mythic being has survived in recognizable form from Anasazi times to the present. There is something appealing about Kokopelli which fascinates all kinds of people, even in our modern technological age.

Long-distance trade networks and migrations from Mexico apparently helped spread cultural and religious elements, so that by 1500 A.D. fluteplayer images were also included in the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Fremont cultures, in petroglyphs (rock carving), pictographs (rock painting), kiva murals, ceramics and baskets. Today, Kokopelli is one of the Hopi kachinas, and is in many traditional stories and songs of Native Americans of the desert southwest

Color of Light

This is the first piece I made when I started one of my long long time hobbies. Stained glass.

Some of my work in case you may want to see is at http://www.colordeluz.com for a short time since I am shutting down that site.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

A stain glass at the top of the entrance of Cafe Tacuba, a long long time restaurant in Mexico downtown. A must visit place.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Textured

Color, Light, Glass and lead oops! and dirt. This is a stained glass lamp I made some time ago, waiting to be hanged. In the meantime it serves the purpose.