Oaxaca, Oaxaca: The City
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Oaxaca is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city. This article is about the city.
The city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca (formally: Oaxaca de Juárez, in honour of 19th-century president and national hero Benito Juárez, who was born nearby) is the capital and main city of the Mexican state of the same name. It is located in the Oaxaca Valley in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountains with an altitude of about 1550 m (5000 feet). The important Monte Albán archaeological site is close to the city. In 2003 the estimated population was 259,600 people.
History
There have been Zapotec and Mixtec settlements in the general area of the modern city of Oaxaca for thousands of years, in connection with the important ancient centers of Monte Albán and Mitla. The colonial city, however, dates from 1532, when Spanish settlers who had followed Hernán Cortés' conquistadores successfully petitioned the Queen of Spain for a grant of land. They had already founded a city in the neighbourhood, under the name of Antequera, on the basis of a charter from King Carlos V of Spain, but Cortés had successfully sought to have the entire Valle de Oaxaca declared as part of his personal marquisate, and to have the settlers removed. The queen's charter however secured the townspeople's rights, and the modern city grew up within and around the one-league square that they were granted.
The historic center of the city is laid out in typical Spanish colonial style, with a rectangular grid of streets surrounding a central square, the zócalo. Most of the important buildings are within this central area.
Tourism
Oaxaca is far more than a tourist destination, and tourism does not dominate the city's life. Nonetheless, it does have a significant tourist trade, based on its numerous baroque churches and religious buildings (many of which have recently been restored), its proximity to Monte Albán, the ready availability of attractive local craft products in its markets and in nearby villages, and on a reputation for a relaxed style of life and friendly and courteous local population. It has a very wide range of cafés and restaurants, many of them specialising in the distinctive regional cuisine and some of them claimed to be among the best in Mexico.
Important buildings
Earthquakes damaged or destroyed many of the earliest buildings in the city, so most of those that currently exist date from no earlier than the beginning of the 18th century.
• Churches and religious buildings
• Cathedral, replacing an earlier building and completed in 1733, which contains the Santa Cruz de Huatalco dating from 1612
• Church and former convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
Santo Domingo, Oaxaca
The Church and former monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is the most important of the numerous baroque ecclesiastical buildings in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico.
The complex of buildings includes a substantial sanctuary and an extensive system of courtyards, cloisters and rooms that formerly constituted the monastery but now house the Cultural Centre of Oaxaca. This museum includes an important collection of pre-Columban artefacts, among them the contents of Tomb 7 from the nearby Zapotec site of Monte Albán. The former monastery garden is now an Ethnobotanical Garden, containing a large collection plants native to the region.
The entrance to both church and museum is across a wide plaza that acts as a centre for local fiestas and other entertainments. It is located about half a kilometre north of the central squares of the city, the Zócalo and the Alameda, and the connecting street is pedestrianised, so it is a popular place for both tourists and local residents to stroll.
As it name implies, the church and monastery were founded by the Dominican order. They were constructed over a long period, from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth. The monastery was active from 1608 to 1857. In the period of the revolutionary wars, the buildings were turned over to military use, and from 1866 to 1902 they served as a barracks. The church was restored to religious use in 1938, but the monastery was made available to the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. In 1972 it became a regional museum, and in 1993 the decision was taken to undertake a full restoration. This was completed in 1999. It is an exceptional example of conservation architecture. The architect responsible was Juan Urquiaga.
The church has also been fully restored. Its highly decorated interior includes copious use of gold leaf.
• Church of San Augustín, completed in 1722.
• Church and former monastery of St John of God (Templo y Exconvento de San Juan de Dios), Oaxaca's oldest church still standing, completed in 1703.
• Church of San Felipe Neri
• Former convent (Ex convento) of San Catalina (now the Hotel Camino Real)
• Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, which contains a statue of the Virgin of Solitude, crowned with a four and a half pound solid gold crown studded with diamonds – though this was the subject of an unsolved theft recently.
Government buildings
• Governor's palace (Palacio de Gobierno), dating from 1884 though on the site of several earlier buildings serving the same purpose.
Museums and the arts
• Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, occupying the former monastery buildings attached to Santo Domingo church, and beautifully restored in the late 1990s to serve as a world-class museum of Oaxacan life from pre-Columban days to the present. Some important artefacts from Monte Albán are displayed here.
• Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, MACO), housed in the so-called Casa de Cortés. This is a beautiful colonial building, though as it dates from after the death of Hernán Cortés, it can never actually have served as his house.
• Rufino Tamayo museum (Museo Arte Prehispánico de Rufino Tamayo), with an important collection of pre-Columban art, arranged in an unusual aesthetic and thematic manner
• Museo de la Soledad, next to the Church of the Soledad.
• Instituto de Artes Gráficos de Oaxaca
• Casa de Juárez, a museum devoted to the life of Benito Juárez
• Photography Museum, the Centro de Fotografía Álvarez Bravo
• Stamp Museum, the Museo Philatélica de Oaxaca
• Railway Museum of Southern Mexico, in the former mainline railway station
• Teatro Macedonio Alcalá, which as well as being a working theatre houses a collection of romantic art.
• Planetarium, on the Cerro del Fortín
Commercial buildings
• Juárez market
• 20 de Noviembre market
• Crafts market (Mercado de Artesanías)
• Mercado de Abastos
• Los Arquitos (former aqueduct)
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Parks and gardens
• The Zócalo
• Alameda de Léon, diagonally adjacent to the zócalo and in front of the cathedral
• Ethnobotanical garden, surrounding the former monastery of Santo Domingo
• Parque Benito Juárez (known as El Llano)
• Cerro de Fortín, overlooking the highway that enters the city from Mexico City, and bearing in stone letters Benito Juárez's slogan, "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" (Respect for others' rights is peace)
• Parque Comunal de San Felipe, bordering the city and accessed via the suburb of San Felipe del Agua, and including the 3250-metre Cerro La Peña
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