Cholula, Puebla

Cholula on the map of Puebla

Cholula ( Nahuatl originally Cholollan ), full name San Pedro Cholula is a city and a Munizip in the Mexican state of Puebla. Cholula is located about 15 km west from the city of Puebla on 2,146 m asl at the foot of the Popocatepetl volcano. Due to the high population growth of Puebla Cholula now part of the metropolitan area of Puebla. The full name of the city is often given as Cholula de Rivadavia. The epithet refers to the leader of the independence war in Argentina and the first president of this country, Bernardino Rivadavia, and was originally given in his honor to the district, a political entity that no longer exists. Cholula has over 100,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 70 km ².

The city of Cholula is also the capital of the Munizips San Pedro Cholula. It sometimes even among locals for confusion, as San Pedro Cholula has a neighboring district called San Andres Cholula, whose capital is also called Cholula. About 20 kilometers to the southwest is also located a small village called Santa Isabel Cholula.

In the USA, under the name of an imported from Mexico Cholula hot sauce ( like Tabasco ), Salsa " Cholula Hot Sauce ', very popular and popular.

The arcades around the zocalo of Cholula, San Petro among the longest in Mexico. They are home to small cafes and small shops. From here you can look on the famous yellow -washed church " Capilla Real" ( 16th century ) with its 49 domes and the small city park.

Cholula was a popular pilgrimage destination, with many temples, monasteries and pyramids before the Conquest. One of the largest ever built pyramids, the Great Pyramid of Cholula is still preserved and is still one of the biggest constructions in the world. Today the Catholic Church perched " Santa Maria de los Remedios " on this pyramid, the church was built by the Spanish conquerors, and the latter the rubble stones of the Mexican temples used, previously stood on the pyramid plateau and smaller, formerly standing in the immediate vicinity of the pyramids. This early colonial church was destroyed in an earthquake in the 19th century and rebuilt 1864-1874 with reference to the original architecture. Also in the rekonstrukiven design of the church interior, the extremely lush, typical Mexican Baroque design was revived, so that almost all of the ornamental church shines in gold leaf.

Despite the Conquest Cholula is still remained a holy city, for now it includes so many churches. All these churches are to have together 365 domes. For each dome there is a festival, which is to see some fireworks, or at least heard by the inflammation of some firecrackers every day.

Cholula is also home to one of the largest private universities in Mexico, the Universidad de las Américas.

History

Cholula was an important settlement area already in pre- Colombian times. Probably people already settled here long before 200 BC birth of Christ. Between 725 and 1525 AD Cholula was an important spiritual center of the Valley of Mexico. Cholula housed next to other sanctuaries, the most important place of worship of the deity Quetzalcoatl, which has been linked by the Aztecs initially with the person of the future conqueror Cortes. Until the 16th century Cholula preserved, similar to the neighboring states of Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo independence from the empire of the Aztecs. At the time of arrival of the Spaniards in Central America, the city had about 100,000 inhabitants and was only just become Tenochtitlan tribute.

Beginning in October 1519 reached the Spaniards, the city and were received by the population rather unfriendly. From captured priests were told the Spaniards, under the use of torture, that a force of Tenochtitlan came and broke up an ambush would be scheduled. Then invited Hernán Cortés on October 18, the upper class of the city a Abschiedsfestmahl, and then let the Indian participants from behind murder of his soldiers. After this mass murder attracted his soldiers with the allied Indians through the city and massacred the population indiscriminately and then pillaged the city. Several thousand casualties of this bloodlust. After Cortés ordered the surviving cacique of the city to retrieve the fleeing inhabitants and to open up the markets again.

Very soon after the Spanish conquest of Mexico Cholula received on October 27, 1535 the title of a city and a few years later, a European dominated city arms.

Although the city grew relatively strong, but never reached the importance of the nearby Puebla.

Sons and daughters of the town

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