Historic Centre of Puebla
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How it came to be
Puebla lies about 100 km east of Mexico City at the foot of Popocatépetl. In 1530 Julián Garcés, bishop of Tlaxcala, wrote to the Spanish queen that a Spanish settlement was needed between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz. The city was founded from scratch, not on an existing indigenous city, and its official foundation date is 16 April 1531.
It was laid out on a Spanish plan around a main square, today's Zócalo. The cathedral was begun in 1575 on the orders of Philip II and consecrated in 1649, although the north tower was added only in 1678 and the south tower in 1768. In 1646 Juan de Palafox y Mendoza founded a library for the seminary and gave it his own 5,000 books.
The fusion of European and American styles, seen in the many houses faced with azulejo tiles, became the mark of Puebla's Baroque. On 5 May 1862 Mexican forces under Ignacio Zaragoza defeated a French army here, and the city was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza.
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