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Puebla de Zaragoza (; ; ), formally Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, formerly Puebla de los Ángeles during colonial times, or known simply as Puebla, is the seat of Puebla Municipality. It is the capital and largest city of the state of Puebla, and the fourth-largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. A New Spain planned city, it is located in the southern part of Central Mexico on the main route between Mexico City and Mexico's main Atlantic Ocean port, Veracruz—about east southeast of Mexico City and about west of Veracruz.Julia Hirshberg, "Social Experiments in New Spain: A Prosopographical Study of the Early Settlement at Puebla de Los Angeles, 1531-1534", Hispanic American Historical Review vol. 59, 1979.
The city was founded in 1531 in an area called Cuetlaxcoapan, which means "where serpents change their skin", between two of the main indigenous settlements at the time, Tlaxcala and Cholula. This valley was not populated in the 16th century, as in the pre-Columbian this area was primarily used for the "" between a number of populations. Due to its history and architectural styles ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque, the city was named a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city is also famous for mole poblano, chiles en nogada and Talavera pottery. However, most of its economy is based on industry.
Being both the fourth-largest city in Mexico and the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Mexico, it has a current population of 3,344,000 people, and the city serves as one of the main hubs for eastern-central Mexico. Students from surrounding states attend its prestigious universities, such as BUAP, UDLAP, Ibero, among others. The city also excels in industry, having the world's largest Volkswagen factory outside Germany, located in the Municipality of Cuautlancingo and an Audi plant in San José Chiapa. Official Volkswagen AG webpage. (In German) As a result, many suppliers to Volkswagen and Audi assembly plants have opened factories in the metropolitan area of Puebla.
The foundation of Puebla begins with a letter from the bishop of Tlaxcala in 1530, Julián Garcés, to the Spanish queen outlining the need for a Spanish settlement between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz. According to legend, the bishop had a dream about where to build the city. In this dream, he saw a valley with woods and meadows crossed by a clear river and dotted with fresh-water springs on fertile land. While he was contemplating this scenery, he supposedly saw a group of angels descend from heaven and trace out the city. Convinced he had seen a divine vision, he celebrated Mass, and took some of the brothers out in search of the place. Five leagues from the monastery he declared they had found the place shown in the dream. This legend is the source of Puebla's original name, Puebla de los Ángeles, and its current nickname Angelópolis (literally, City of Angels).
Puebla was an important city and region in the history of New Spain, since it was in the center region of Spanish settlement, midway between the main port and the capital, had a large indigenous population, and drew many Spanish settlers. It supplied the capital with commercially grown agricultural products and became a center of local textile production.Guy P.C. Thomson, Puebla de Los Angeles: Industry and Society in a Mexican City, 1700-1850. Westview Press 1989. It was well connected to Mexico's North, particularly the silver-mining region around Zacatecas.
Most of the population moved away from the west bank of the San Francisco River to a higher site. A few families remained behind and renamed the original settlement Alto de San Francisco. The Spanish Crown supported the founding of Puebla as a city without , as this system was being abused and a number of Spaniards were finding themselves landless. Puebla received its coat-of-arms in 1538, and the titles "Noble y Leal" (Noble and Loyal) in 1558, "Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad" (Very Noble and Loyal City) in 1561 and "Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad" (Very Noble and Very Loyal City) in 1576.
The layout of the city is of classic Spanish design, centered on a main plaza, today called the Zócalo. This main plaza originally was rectangular, but later made square because the earlier version was considered to be ugly. Another major feature of the city were the weekly markets (tianguis), in which indigenous sellers would come with their wares and foodstuffs to sell to the population. By the mid-16th century, water was brought in to the main plaza to a newly installed fountain. By the end of the century, the city occupied 120 blocks, much of which was under construction, with the new Puebla Cathedral begun in 1575. During the Iberian Union (1580–1640), the city developed a sizeable Portuguese community. Trade ties with Portugal and a growing economy made the city an entrepôt for the transatlantic slave trade during the early 1600s. (2025). 9781108304245, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108304245
Puebla's favorable climate and strategic location helped the city to prosper, quickly becoming the second most important city in New Spain. Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, the preeminent 17th-century composer in the New World, spent most of his life at the cathedral, from about 1620 to 1664.
The city council of Puebla, being made up of only Spaniards, had a certain amount of autonomy in the politics of the city and the land under its jurisdiction. This council annexed the towns of Amozoc, Totimehuacán, and Cuautinchán to its territory in 1755. By 1786, Puebla's lands reached from what is now Veracruz to Guerrero states. The city continued to grow and be more regulated during the 17th and 18th centuries. A new city hall was built in 1714 and the tianguis in the main plaza was replaced by wood stalls by the 1770s. The streets were paved with stone between 1786 and 1811.
Commercial activity was dislodged from the main plaza completely by the early 19th century and placed in the San Francisco Parian market. Other plazas, such as the San Luis, San Antonio, El Carmen, La Concordia and Santa Inés were built. The main plaza underwent several transformations, adding statues and gardens. During the Mexican War of Independence, Puebla's main role was the printing and distribution of the plan for independence. In 1827, after Independence, all Spaniards ( peninsulares) were expelled from the city's lands.
During the French intervention in Mexico on 5 May 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, defending Mexican forces under Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French army under Count de Lorencez. The city's name was changed to Puebla de Zaragoza in 1862, by a decree issued by Benito Juárez and the holiday "5 de Mayo" (Cinco de Mayo) is a major annual event here. The city was attacked again by the French in 1863, who succeeded in taking it. French forces left in 1866 and reconstruction began in 1867.
During the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Puebla remained important culturally and economically. It had a thriving textile industry at this time. Immigration from Europe was encouraged and people from Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Lebanon came to live in the city.
In what became a precursor to the Mexican Revolution, siblings Carmen, Máximo y Aquiles Serdán were behind one of the first conspiracies against the Porfirio Diaz government. Their plans were discovered and their house, located on 6 Oriente street was surrounded by federal troops. A gun battle ensued, killing both Serdán brothers on 18 November 1910. During the Mexican Revolution, the city was taken by forces under General Pablo Gonzalez Garza, then later was under Zapatista control.
The City of Puebla submitted its candidacy to hold the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and briefly served as interim secretariat headquarters until negotiations were stopped in 2005.
As municipal seat, the city of Puebla is the government for 482 other communities with a total area of 534.32 km2. However, 94% of the municipality's population of 1,485,941 lives in the city proper.
The Sierra del Tentzon and higher elevations of Malinche volcano still conserve the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests ecoregion – with forests of pine, holm oak and other tree species. In the pine forests, Montezuma Pine (Pinus montezumae) is generally predominant, with Hartweg's Pine (Pinus hartwegii) and Pinus teocote in dry areas with shallow soils. Pine-fir forests are composed almost entirely of Hartweg's Pine (Pinus hartwegii) and Sacred Fir (Abies religiosa).
Animal life consists mostly of small mammals such as rabbits and skunks, as well as birds such as owls, buzzards and wild waterfowl.
La Malinche dormant volcano is located to the north of the city, and the Pico de Orizaba to the east. Hydrologically, the city is part of the Atoyac river basin; the river runs through northern, eastern and southern portions of the municipality, and connects to the Lake of Valsequillo, where the Manuel Ávila Camacho dam has been built. Other rivers that cross the area are the Alseseca and San Francisco.
In spite of the many shopping malls that exist in Puebla today, the Zócalo, the main square, remains the cultural, political and religious center of the city. Many notable buildings surround the Zocalo including City Hall, the Casa de los Muñecos and the cathedral. Most of the streets in Puebla are named on a numbering system, which centers on the northwest corner of the Zocalo. El Parián is an arts and crafts market, within walking distance of the plaza. It consists mostly of permanent stalls but there is an area provided for vendors who visit and sell their wares on blankets spread on the ground.
Cuexcomate is a geyser geyserite thirteen meters tall with a diameter of 23 meters. The geyser is inactive and located in the La Libertad neighborhood of the city of Puebla. There is a spiral staircase going down into the crater itself.
Cuexcomate was mistakenly called the smallest volcano in the world due to its shape. However, this is a geyser, not a volcano. The word Cuexcomate comes from the Nahuatl "clay pot" or "place to keep" and has been used to store meals and dispose of dead bodies.
The Biblioteca Palafoxiana (Palafoxiana Library) was established in 1646 by Juan de Palafox y Mendoza for the Seminary of Puebla. He donated his own collection of 5,000 books to the College of San Juan to start the collection. It was the first public library in the Americas. The main room is in Baroque style and was constructed in 1773 by Bishop Francisco Fabian y Fuero who also named the institution after Palafox. Today the library contains over 42,000 books, 5,000 manuscripts and other items, which date from 1473 to 1910. The Library was named a Historic Monument of Mexico (Monumento Histórico de México) and UNESCO has made it a world heritage site.
The Centro Cultural Santa Rosa is housed in a building that dates from the 17th century which originally was housing for Dominican nuns. Later, it became a convent named in honour of Saint Rose of Lima. This is where the story of the invention of mole poblano takes place. In 1869, it ceased being a convent and became a psychiatric hospital. In the 20th century the Ceramic Museum was founded in the building's kitchen, with the rest of the building occupied as tenements for about 1500 people. In 1973, the Museo de Arte Cultural Poblano was founded and in 2000 the name was changed to the current one. The facility offers exhibitions, shows and art classes.
The Museo de la Revolución (Museum of the Revolution) was the home of Aquiles Serdán in the very early 20th century. He was politically active in the anti-reelection (of President Porfirio Diaz) movement of the time and was accused of distributing propaganda against Díaz. Police assaulted the building and Serdán and his family fought back, until Aquiles was killed. President Francisco I. Madero stayed at the home in honor of Serdán. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Mexico City and the building became tenements and stores. Decades later, the federal government acquired the building from the family to convert it into the museum that is here today.
Fort Loreto and Fort Guadalupe are located in the Centro Civico 5 de Mayo part of the city. Both were instrumental to the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862. The chapel of the Loreto fort contains a former chapel, which is now the Museo de la No Intervención (Museum of Non-Intervention). This is to commemorate a non-aggression pact signed by Mexico and Central American and two South American countries in the 1960s. The Museo de Guerra del Fuerte (Fort War Museum) de Loreto y Guadalupe is located in this fort as well. This museum contains cannons, shotguns, swords, documents and other objects related to this battle.
The Galería de Arte Contemporáneo y Diseño (Gallery of Contemporary Art and Design) is dedicated to visual arts such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, metal etching, photography, video, and others and belongs to the Secretary of Culture of the state of Puebla. It is housed in the old La Violeta textile factory, which dates back to 1908, and was one only many factories in this area at that time. This building was renovated between 1995 and 1998 for this museum.
The International Museum of the Baroque is a museum of Baroque art designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. It opened on February 4, 2016.
The Museo de José Mariano Bello y Acedo was initially founded with the private collection of the Bello family, along with works donated by friends. It originally began as a private museum or pinacotheca. Upon José Mariano's death, the house and collection was bequeathed to the city.
The Casa de Alfeñique is named for the intricate mortar work that covers its façade. Alfeñique is a kind of sugar and almond candy. It was constructed by Antonio Santamaría de Incháurregui for Juan Ignacio Morales, who was a master ironsmith. The façades also contain ironwork balconies, cornices and a crown. The house was left to the state by Alejandro Ruiz Olavarrieta in 1896. It was first used to house the first public museum in the city of Puebla. The collection contains more than 1,500 pieces of a historical nature.
The Museo de Arte (Museum of Art) originally was constructed to be the Temple of San Pedro, founded in 1541 to be a church and a hospital. Eventually it was established as the Hospital of San Pedro y San Pablo under the direction of the Cathedral of Tlaxcala. It was functioning as a hospital by 1544, but it incurred major expenditures, forcing it to limit service to men only. The arches of the main courtyard were completed in 1640, as well as it fountain and nursing units. In the first half of the 18th century, the hospital ceased to be under the direct control of the cathedral, passing to the monks of the order of San Juan de Dios. In the latter half of the century, it began to house soldiers in order to improve its finances. The hospital underwent major reforms in the early 19th century to improve medical care, and began to receive medical students from the Medical-Surgical Academy of Puebla. In 1867, the facility became the Hospital General del Estado. In 1917, the hospital moved to new facilities in the city. Through most of the 20th century, the building was used for a wide-variety of purposes. In 1998, a project to restore the building for its use as Puebla Museum of Viceregal Art. In 2002, this museum was converted into the San Pedro Museum of Art, which exhibits works from various epochs.
The Museum Workshop of Erasto Cortés Juárez was the home of one of the major figures in fine and graphic arts in Puebla in the 20th century. The museum was founded in 2000 and contains more than 400 pieces of both his work and personal effects. The museum also hosts temporary exhibits, workshops and seminars.
The Church and Friary of San Francisco is on Blvd Heroes del 5 de Mayo. Its elevated four-level tower stands out with its mouldings and Ionic and Doric pilasters. The main façade is done in gray cantera stone in which are sculpted large jars and flowers. The main portal is of Churrigueresque style, flanked by large panels of tilework surrounded by Plateresque decoration. Inside is a Plateresque choir, Neoclassic altarpieces and the mummified body of the beatified, and soon to be canonized as a saint, Sebastian de Aparicio.
The large friary complex houses an active group of Franciscan friars, who in addition to running a large K-12 school on the site, also work in other pastoral, justice, peace, and environmental activities.
The Church of Santo Domingo is located on 5 de Mayo Street. The main portal is of pure classic style finished in gray cantera stone. It consists of three levels with paired Doric-like columns. The façade of the old monastery is highly decorated in Baroque style, in front of which is a large atrium. Inside the ceiling consists of two large vaults and contains gilded altarpieces in Baroque, Salmonic and Churrigueresque styles.
The Chapel of the Rosary is located in the Church of Santo Domingo. The chapel was built between 1650 and 1690 and was the first to be dedicated to the Our Lady of the Rosary. The chapel is filled with symbolism, as it is filled with images and elements which are representative of the Baroque of New Spain. This symbolism is principally meant to aid with the evangelization process. The chapel contains three themes important to the Church, the mysteries of the rosary, the virtues associated with it and the Virgin of the Rosary herself. The cupola is in the shape of the crown of the Virgin Mary. The chapel is decorated with sculpted plaster that has been gilded done by local artists. There are also six paintings done by José Rodriguez Carnero as well as paintings by the altar depicting the life of the Virgin.
The Teatro Principal de Puebla (Main Theater of Puebla) was inaugurated in 1761 by Miguel de Santamaría. In 1902, the theater burned down, and was rebuilt in 1940, and again in 1998. The theater hosts cultural events and art shows featuring regional, national and international artists.
The Municipal Palace is located on Maximino Avila Camacho. The façade is made of gray cantera stone in Renaissance style, using Ionic order columns and , differing from the other buildings that border the main plaza. The portal has two levels topped by a central garret, in which there is a clock and towers on each side.
The Fountain of the China Poblana is located on Blvd Heroes de 5 de May. It is a monumental work done in cantera stone and Talavera tile, with a base of about thirty meters in diameter. In the center is a column that supports two large bowls and a sculpture of the China Pobalana which is over three meters high. This fountain was inaugurated in September 1971. The monument was sculpted by Jesús Corro Ferrer, who portaraited the China Poblana using the image of his own wife - María del Consuelo López y Martínez. The Monument to Rafael Cabrera is also located in the city.
The other story states that the sauce is of pre-Hispanic times and this was served to Hernán Cortés and the other conquistadors by Moctezuma II. The Aztecs did have a preparation called "chilmulli", which in Nahuatl means "chili pepper sauce". However, there is no evidence that chocolate was ever used to flavor prepared foods or used in chilmulli. What has happened is that the sauce gained ingredients as it was reinterpreted over the colonial period. Many food writers and gourmets nowadays consider one particular dish, the famous turkey in mole poblano, which contains chocolate, to represent the pinnacle of the Mexican cooking tradition. Another famous dish, chiles en nogada, was also supposedly invented here. The story begins with three sisters from Puebla who met officers from Agustin de Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees in Mexico City and fell in love with them. Attempts were made to engage the couples but one problem was that none of the sisters knew how to cook. Upon returning to Puebla, their mother sent them to the Convent of Santa Monica to learn. The women decided they wanted to make an original dish to impress Iturbide and his officers when they were due to visit Puebla. The dish, chiles en nogada, represents the colors of the Mexican flag, green (parsley), white (the walnut sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds). The dish was served for the first time at a banquet for Iturbide with great success.
Another signature dish in Puebla is the "cemita", which is a type of well-stuffed sandwich on a bun. The cemita is considered to be "the sister of the Mexican torta, the first cousin of the pambazo, the distant cousin of the paste and the sandwich and the precursor to the giant tortas" that are now sold in most parts of Mexico today. This large, meaty sandwich is named after the bread on which it is served, a cemita. This bread is based on a bread introduced by the French during the period of the French Intervention in Mexico (1863–1867), but since then has evolved to suit Mexican tastes, especially in Puebla state. In the early 20th century, the bread began to be served sliced with a filling of leftovers, generally potatoes, beans, nopal, beef, chicken or pork. The Victoria Market in Puebla became famous for a version with beef hoof, onions and chili peppers with a vinaigrette sauce. Other markets and food stands soon created their own versions of the cemita with just about any kind of filling combination possible. During the same time period, it became traditional to sprinkle sesame seeds onto the cemita bread, often with designs of flowers, stars, animals and other things. While the dish started out as a lower-class meal, it is now enjoyed by people of all social classes in the city as a form of fast-food.
In 1813, the constitution eradicated the potter's guild and revoked the ordinances established in 1653 to standardize production. Now anybody could use this ceramic method in any style they wanted, and the lack of regulations led to a decline in technique and artistic quality. The Talavera market crashed. Out of the 46 workshops in production since the 18th century, only seven remained. When Enrique Luis Ventosa, a 29-year-old Catalan, arrived in Puebla in 1897, there were just six workshops left. Ventosa was fascinated by the history and fine craft work that had distinguished Puebla from the rest of Mexico. He became the leading force behind a renaissance in Talavera ware.
Another impetus to the rebirth of Puebla tile was that collectors found out about it. In 1904 an American named Emily Johnston de Forest traveled to Mexico with her husband and discovered Talavera. She established contact with scholars, collectors, and dealers who assisted her in building her collection. Eventually her collection was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Other museums, like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, built their own collections. The Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City has the largest collection of 726 pieces.
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Puebla has one professional football team, Puebla F.C. The biggest football stadium in the city, Cuauhtémoc Stadium, with a capacity of 51,720, was built in 1968 as a second football field for the 1968 Olympic Games. Matches for the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups were also played in Cuauhtémoc Stadium. In 2015 it was intervened to make it up to new Fifa standards which commodity, modernism and outside visual image have changed for the better. With a capacity of 51,720 it is the 4th biggest stadium in México just behind Jalisco Stadium. At 45.9 meters tall it is also the highest stadium from parking level to the highest most part of the roof beating the second tallest Aztec stadium by 4 meters.
Puebla has a professional baseball team, the Pericos de Puebla.
Puebla, through the conurbated area of Cholula, has one college American football team, the "Aztecas" of the Universidad de las Américas. The Aztecas have won the championship three times since the creation of the ONEFA (ONEFA) in 1978 (1995, 1996, and 1997). The team has been runners-up in the league five times, most recently in 2006 and 2007, losing the championship game all five times to the ITESM Campus Monterrey Borregos Salvajes. The Aztecas' home stadium is the Templo del Dolor (Temple of Pain).
Industry accounts for about eighty percent of the economy and is mostly based in the outskirts of the city as well as in some surrounding municipalities. Main products include basic metals, chemicals, electrical items and textiles. The main employers are Hylsa and the Volkswagen automotive plant. A growing sector is food processing. Many industries are consolidated into parks such as the 5 de Mayo Industrial Park, the Resurrección Industrial Zone and the Puebla 2000 Industrial Park. Shopping centers include the Angelópolis Lifestyle Center and Parque Puebla.
In January 2013 the first line of the rapid transit bus system named RUTA was opened to the public from Chachapa to Tlaxcalancingo, in April 2014 the second line was inaugurated going from North 11th street at the height of Diagonal Defensores de la República to Calle Limones, and in 2019 the third line was added to the system, transporting passengers from Valsequillo to CAPU, the main hub for transport outside of the city. The Puebla–Cholula Tourist Train was inaugurated in January 2017 connecting Puebla with Cholula in the western end of the city. Operation of the tram-train ended on 31 December 2021.
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