Ad00341 05 093a/eng
Ansicht des grossen Platzes der Stadt Mexiko in Amerika
Beschreibungstext eng
Misc. Subjects. CXXIX. Vol. VI. No. 91., VIEW OF THE GREAT SQUARE OF THE CITY OF MEXICO IN AMERICA., In the place of the present city of Mexico, which lias been built hy the Spaniards after the conquest of that country of the new world, anciently was situated the city of Tenochtitlan, the residence of proper kings of the ancient inhabitants. This city having been taken by the Spaniards and wholly destroyed, after a persévérant siege in 1521, Cortez, the leader of the Spanish army, ordered a new city of Mexico to be founded after the european fashion, which contains about 140,000 inhabitants, not being inferior to any one of the most celebrated cities of Europe. We behold here represented the great square (la plaza i:iajvr) where in former times stood the gr&a temple of Mcxitili, or the God of war of the primitive (inhabitants of America afterwards thus called. Now-a-days this place is adorned with the magnificent equestrian statue of Charles IV., King of Spain, constructed of metal by the celebrated Spanish artist Don Manuel Dolsa, and reared in Mexico in 1203. The place round the statue is paved with freestones of porphyry, surrounded by a balustrade and locked up with four gates. Behind the principal place in the center of our figure we behold the stately cathedral church (2), part of which (3) is entirely built in the moresk style. On the left of the cathedral church we view the palace simply built, which is the seat of the Viceroy of new Spain.
