Tlayacapan

Tlayacapan
Coordinates: 18 ° 57 ′ N , 98 ° 59 ′ W Tlayacapan on the map of Morelos	Tlayacapan
	Tlayacapan
Basic data
Country	Mexico
State	Morelos
Municipio	Tlayacapan
City foundation	around 1400
Residents	9033 (2004)
- in the metropolitan area	14,467
	City insignia
Detailed data
surface	71.56 km 2
Population density	126 inhabitants / km 2
height	1640 m
Website	tlayacapan.gob.mx/web/inicio.php
	Tlayacapan - Ex-Convento de San Juan Bautista

Tlayacapan ( Nahuatl : "place at the end of the world") is a small town with about 10,000 and the capital of a municipality ( municipio ) with about 15,000 inhabitants in the state of Morelos in Mexico . The place is one of the charming and culturally significant Pueblos Magicos .

location

Tlayacapan is located in the colonial center of Mexico at an altitude of approx. 1640 meters above sea level. d. M. about 80 kilometers (driving distance) south of Mexico City or about 53 kilometers east of the city of Cuernavaca or about 24 kilometers north of Cuautla .

Population and economy

Only about 500 residents of the community speak Nahuatl ; they mostly live in the rural villages. Corn , cucumbers , tomatoes , beans and avocados are grown on the fertile soils in the vicinity of the village ; livestock breeding plays a subordinate role. Possibly before the colonial era, the place was a center of pottery - a tradition that has continued to this day. Overall, tourism is still in the development stage.

history

Palacio Municipal with a small clock tower

The earliest archaeological finds in the municipality are assigned to the Olmec era. Later Nahua -speaking groups immigrated from the north, the Aztecs being the most famous. According to tradition, Tlayacapan was an important trading place and equipped with temple pyramids for the earth mother Tonantzin and other gods. These buildings were in today's city center; they were torn down by the Spaniards who arrived after 1520 and the churches, palaces and houses of the colonial rulers were built with their stones. The land of the Indians was expropriated during this time and transferred to large estates ( haciendas ), which in the 19th and 20th centuries led to social protest movements under the motto tierra y libertad .

Attractions

The streets of today's city are laid out according to a rectangular plan; some streets still convey a bit of colonial flair.
At the Parque central to the town hall (located Palacio Municipal ) the city - a rather austere, but impressive building of the 16th century, the ground floor by six arcades is open.
Not far from there is the Centro Cultural La Cerería in a building that was formerly used as a candle factory. Here are u. a. Finds from various excavations can be seen.
The church of the Ex-convento de San Juan Bautista , built by the Augustinian order in the years 1534–1574, is the main attraction of the city; it is surrounded by a huge courtyard on which the Indians gathered during masses or other events. The predominantly plastered west facade dates from the 16th century and is comparatively unadorned compared to later Mexican churches; the corners are stabilized by inclined buttresses . In the middle is the portal and a west window of roughly the same size with archivolts , which is framed by fluted pilasters and raised by a triangular gable. The end of the facade is an imposing five-part bell gable with small obelisk attachments , which are more common in Renaissance buildings . The single nave interior of the church is barrel vaulted , but otherwise unadorned. Since 1994, it is one along with other mission churches in Central Mexico to UNESCO - World Heritage Site .

A small museum is housed in the former enclosure .

Surroundings

Spread over the entire municipal area - often isolated - there are more than twenty charming rural churches and chapels from the 16th to 18th centuries.