Fall of Tenochtitlan

The Massacre in the Great Temple, also called the Alvarado Massacre, was an event on May 22, 1520, in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, in which the celebration of the Feast of Toxcatl ended in a massacre of Aztec elites. While Hernán Cortés was in Tenochtitlan, he heard about other Spaniards arriving on the coast – Pánfilo de Narváez had come from Cuba with orders to arrest him – and Cortés was forced to leave the city to fight them. During his absence, Moctezuma asked deputy governor Pedro de Alvarado for permission to celebrate Toxcatl (an Aztec festivity in honor of Tezcatlipoca, one of their main gods, which, as popular in Aztec culture, included human sacrifice, in this case of a young man). But after the festivities had started, Alvarado interrupted the celebration, killing all the warriors and noblemen who were celebrating inside the Great Temple. The few who managed to escape the massacre by climbing over the walls informed the community of the Spaniards' atrocity.The Spanish version of the incident claims the conquistadors intervened to prevent a ritual of human sacrifice in the Templo Mayor; the Aztec version says the Spaniards were enticed into action by the gold the Aztecs were wearing, prompting an Aztec rebellion against the orders of Moctezuma. While differing so on Alvarado's specific motive, both accounts are in basic agreement that the celebrants were unarmed and that the massacre was without warning and unprovoked. The Aztecs were already antagonistic towards the Spaniards for being inside their city and for holding Moctezuma under house arrest. When Cortés and his men, including those who had come under Narváez, returned, the Aztecs began full scale hostilities against the Spaniards. The Spaniards had no choice but to retreat from the city, which they did on what is called the Sad Night (La Noche Triste), losing most of their men, who were either killed in the battle or were captured and sacrificed.

The Palacio de la Autonomía (Autonomy Palace) is a museum and site where the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México gained autonomy from direct government control in 1929. The building is from the late 19th century, and located on the corner of Licenciado de Verdad and Rep de Guatemala streets, north of Santa Teresa la Antigua and east of Templo Mayor. The site has a 500-year history, starting from part of lands granted by Hernán Cortés. The current building was constructed by the administration of President Porfirio Díaz, but it was ceded to the University in 1910. Since that time, the building has had a number of uses, including housing a dental school and a preparatory school. Today it houses the Museo de la Autonomía Universitaria (University Autonomy Museum).

The Palace of the Marquis del Apartado is a historic residence located in Mexico City, just to the northeast of the city's Zocalo (main plaza) in the Historic center of Mexico City. It was built between 1795 and 1805 over one of the pyramids of the Aztec sacred precinct in Tenochtitlan. The residence was initially built for the main minter of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the third floor was prepared to become the residence of Spanish king Ferdinand VII. However, the king never came to colonial Mexico. Today, the palace houses the main headquarters of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH).

Colegio de San Ildefonso, currently is a museum and cultural center in Mexico City, considered to be the birthplace of the Mexican muralism movement. San Ildefonso began as a prestigious Jesuit boarding school, and after the Reform War it gained educational prestige again as National Preparatory School. This school and the building closed completely in 1978, then reopened as a museum and cultural center in 1992. The museum has permanent and temporary art and archeological exhibitions in addition to the many murals painted on its walls by José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, Diego Rivera and others. The complex is located between San Ildefonso Street and Justo Sierra Street in the historic center of Mexico City.The college was founded 1588 and it is composed of six sections, that are five colonial baroque: the Colegio Grande, Colegio Chico, the chapel, El Generalito and the courtyard of los Pasantes, all completed in 1749; and one modern neo-baroque: the Amphitheater Bolívar completed in 1911.

Santa Teresa la Antigua is a former convent located in the historic center of Mexico City on Licenciado Primo de Verdad #6 just northeast of the city's main plaza. The complex ceased to be a convent in the latter part of the 19th century and has housed the Santa Teresa la Antigua Alternative Art Center since 1989.

The Plaza Manuel Gamio is a plaza located in historic center of Mexico City, Mexico. It is located between the archaeological zone of the Templo Mayor and the tabernacle of the Metropolitan Cathedral. It was named in honor of Manuel Gamio, the archaeologist of the excavations of the ceremonial precinct of the Mexica, and includes the space between the streets of Moneda (to the south) and a fragment of the República de Guatemala to the north. Due to its proximity to the Templo Mayor, it is a frequent site of important finds from ancient Tenochtitlan and due to its proximity to the site where the first urban layout of the current Mexican capital was made in 1522, it is close to places where the first headquarters of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was established, the first headquarters of the Mexican Mint, the archbishop's house and the aforementioned cathedral and the first Ethnographic Museum of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), among others. It was from the works of creation of the archaeological zone from 1978 in which the plaza received its current configuration and the definitive closure to vehicular traffic of streets such as Seminario.

The Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público is an art museum located in the historic center of Mexico City. It is housed in what was the Palacio del Arzobispado (Palace of the Archbishopric), built in 1530 under Friar Juan de Zumárraga on the base of the destroyed pyramid dedicated to the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. It remained the archbishphoric until 1867 when the Finance Ministry Accountancy Department was established there. The modern museum houses an exhibit dedicated to this god as well as a large art collection.

The Museum of Light (Spanish: Museo de la Luz) is a science museum dedicated to the phenomena of light, located in the former San Ildefonso College in the historic center of Mexico City. It was opened in 1996 originally in the former church of the San Pedro y San Pablo College. However, this building was closed in 2010 in order to convert it into the Museum of the Constitutions. The Museum of Light was moved to its current and larger location, but it remains an extension of the Universum museum, the general science museum of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

The Tlaxcala House is located at 40 San Ildefonso Street in the historic center of Mexico City. It is an example of a typical middle class home of the 18th century, meant that its style is somewhere between the mansions of the wealthy and the houses of the commoners of the time.The outer facade has two levels, with most of the surface covered in tezontle, a blood-red volcanic stone, with chiluca, a grayish white stone, to frame windows and doors. In the lower part of the facade, the shutters covering the windows reach to the cornice. The main doorway leads to an entrance hall which leads to the inner patio. However, only three of the four sides have corridors and rooms. The fourth side is simple a wall. The north and south corridors have arches, and the north corridor has a ceiling with heavy beams. The stairway to the upper floor is illuminated by an octagonal skylight. Writer Jose Marti lived in this house near the end of the 19th century, and a plaque at the building’s entrance attests to this. The house now is the home of the Tlaxcala State delegation to the federal government in Mexico City.

The Secretariat of Public Education Main Headquarters building (former Convent of la Encarnación) is on the northeast corner of San Ildefonso and República de Argentina streets in the historic center of Mexico City, and used to be part of the largest and most sumptuous convents in New Spain. It was secularized in the 19th century and then taken over by the then-new Secretariat of Public Education after the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. The new agency did extensive remodeling work on the building, including covering nearly all the walls of the two inner courtyards with murals. These murals include Diego Rivera’s first large-scale mural project, which he completed in 1928.

The Fountain to Bartolomé de las Casas (Spanish: Fuente de Fray Bartolomé de las Casas) is installed since 1924 outside the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, in Mexico. The statue of de las Casas was designed by José Fernández Urbina.

The Centro Cultural de España (Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico) is located at 18 Guatemala Street in the historic center of Mexico City. In the late 1990s, this old mansion just behind the Cathedral was in ruins when the Mexico City government ceded it to the Spanish government. When restoration work was finished, the new Centro Cultural de España was inaugurated by the king of Spain with the President of Mexico in 2002.The land in this area used to belong to Hernán Cortés, who ceded it to one of his fellow conquistadors. Over the years, it was modified as it passed it was used as law offices, workshops and various types of stores. In 1985, it was severely damaged by the earthquake and was abandoned until the Spanish government acquired it in 1997. The site was chosen due to a commitment by the Spanish government to save an historical monument in this city. The Spanish undertook a careful restoration of the building.In 2012 the center was expanded to an include lot facing Donceles street and on this space a completely new 4000 sq m wing including a rooftop terrace. Javier Sánchez was the architect.This center promotes art exposition of various Mexican and Spanish artists, and include works by younger, more experimental artists as well as established ones. It also contains a small café upstairs and a gift shop downstairs.