The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-08-29
NEARING MEXICO CITY.
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and private residences the cupolas, facades and
lofty towers of the cathedral and churches the trop
ical wealth of the city patios and of the Alemada
city pleasure garden, leave upon the mind a sim
gularly pleasing impression after the melancholy
influence produced by the nakedness and barren
desolation of the approach to the city.
What in especial manner strikes the visiting
stranger is the unexpected length of many of the
Streets which ntersect at right angles or form da
mond crossings, and disclose at each opening adj
mirable perspective of the mountains, which en-
close the valley of Tenoctillan.
THE ZOCALO.
The great central square, the Plaza Mayor or
Zocalo, as it is now called is unlike anything of
the kind in North America When, in 1922, the
Aztec temple of human sacrifice was destroyed by
Cortez, and Spanish city planned an open space
was left to form a square before the Christian tem-
pie to be raised on the site of the sacrificed
pyramid of the Mexicans 1t was, and is yet the
heart of the city-a beautiful oblong square upon
which less than nine of the principal streets
focus, all the street car lines converge and crowds
of oafers strangers and vendors of fruit gather
all hours of the day and we'll into the night The
great cathedral and the Sagrario or the church of
the metropolitan parish of Mexico, overlook the
zocalo from the south. The ancient palace of the
Spanish governors-now the parliament buildings
are to the west, and many fine buildings among
them the palatial residence of Cortez, trans
formed into mont de piete national pawnshow,
form with some very fine stores called portales the
eastern boundary. Facing the cathedral to the north
is the building known the Deputacion containing
the city Offices the department of police and the
bourse or stock exchange.
Naturally the first building to which the
stranger turns when he enters Mexico City is the
great cathedral AS the visitor to Rome, long be-
fore he enters the imperial city sees from afar the
dome ST. Peters apparently suspended in the air
so the traveller entering the valley of Mexico
catches glimpse of the royal dome and the pro-
digious towers of this magnificent building while
he is yet many miles from the city The cathedral
"The Holy Metropolitan Church of Mexico" at one
time famous for its interior wealth of paintings,
silver ratings and precious marbles, yet retains
and merits its early distinction. It is a vast and
imposing structure 500 feet long retiring from two
very high and strikingly effective towers and fa-
cade or front of wonderful design. The great build
ing is raised some feet above the level of the 20
cola. Its foundations rest the stones and brok
en- idols of the Aztec temple of Huitzillo-pochtli,
the god of war, to whom sixty-fve Spanish prison
ers were inundated and their paptating and smok-
ing hearts offered to the god the morning after Cor
tes and Alvarado saved their men from annihila-
ton on the awful night of SORROW
This temple, with It's dependencies. filed much
larger space than does the cathedral An early man
uscript, known to archaeologists as the "Chmal
popoca" and written in the language of Anabinac
says that the foundations of the cathedral rest on
a forest Of cedar logs held together by iron chains
and that to strengthen the building, the buttresses
of the sacred edce rest heaps of broken statues
of heather divnties.
The impression left upon the mind on imme
diately entering the great church is a sensation of
gloom and GOODNESS, for the choir of the
hides the entire perspective to those passing in BY
the main door. But by degrees, the beauty and i'm
mensity of the sublime creation in stone grow upon
you and you begin to feel did Byron when he
stood under the dome of St. Peters, that here
go Majesty
Power. glory. strength and beauty. all one aised
In this eternal ark of worship indebted"
Bayard Taylor could not restrain his need of
admiration for this noble work of human genius
and for the generosity of the faithful that
enabled the artist to achieve it. Moth
ing in America" he writes, ''is comparable
to the chief temple of modern Mexico, the most