The beautiful, vibrant city of Puebla has a wide range of architectural styles, a lively Zocalo and colourful barrios.
Puebla is a Spanish colonial city, founded in 1531 in the early years of the conquest.
The city has a strong Catholic heritage - there seems to be a church on every street corner! - and much sixteenth and seventeenth century architecture remains in place, including the arcades around the central square, the Zocalo.
It is celebrated for its wealth of colonial architecture, including many of the afore-mentioned churches, the beautiful Talavera ceramics, and as the home of molé - a spicy chocolate chilli sauce.
We had a very good meal at Vittorio's on the Zocalo one evening. The Margarita cocktails were superb: I had a classic and Andrew a Tamarind.
My steak in a red wine and balsamic vinegar sauce with parmesan mash was excellent, followed by a melting Chocolate Volcano dessert. Andrew had jamon serrano pizza; main courses with Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon and Andrew finished with an artisanal limoncello! Quite a meal - especially as we'd started by sharing garlic bread!
The building of the cathedral took almost 75 years from 1575. A rather stolid building, it stands in a spacious yard surrounded by iron railings and red and white buildings. Angels stand on the pillars of the railing - the city is also known as Puebla de los Angeles.
Next door to the cathedral is the Episcopal Palace, most famous as the home of the magnificent Palafox Library, established in 1646, which has some of the oldest printed books in the world.
We stayed in the beautiful Hotel Boutique Casona de la China Poblana.
According to the hotel literature, it is named after an Indian princess, born in 1608, who was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates. She was transported to Mexico where she was supposed to be sold to a Spanish nobleman but, with a changing political situation, the sale collapsed. Instead the ship's Captain de Sosa gave her to his wife.
They had no children and the girl was treated as a daughter rather than a servant. Her exotic ways and clothing earned her the nickname "China Poblana". When her adoptive parents died she was given lodging in this house by its owner Hipolito del Castillo de Alba. She was a pious and good woman whose beautiful gowns composed of an embroidered shirt, skirt and shawl became the typical Poblana female dress. When she died in 1688 she was placed in the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus next door to her home.
We had a fabulous room, on two levels with a luxurious bathroom, a pleasure to come back to after a long day at the archaeological sites or exploring Puebla.
The 18th century Jesuit Iglesia de la Compania de Iglesia is very beautiful, the facade and twin bell towers covered with delicate white reliefs, quite restrained for Baroque in that every square inch is not adorned! The church stands adjacent to the associated college. Jesuits have always had a strong educational mission and schools are more often than not founded alongside their churches.
Puebla is credited with the best and original molé - a sauce usually made from chillis, chocolate, assorted spices and other ingredients, though recipes are as numerous as the cooks who prepare them, and reputedly taking days to create.
We have had the sauce in various places in Mexico but had to try it again in the place of its origin. Made well it's quite a unique taste, spicy, smoky with a chocolate edge - hard to describe!
The Chapel of the Rosary in the Church of Santo Domingo is highly regarded among Baroque enthusiasts for its wealth of gilding, but all the fussiness does nothing for me.
I did, however, like the black and white pulpit in the church itself! It is rather crude inlaid marble (it's not the Taj Mahal!), somewhat damaged, but nicely designed in restrained geometrics.
In the north east of the city are remnants and memorials of a more modern kind. Two forts were the scene of a victory of Mexican forces over a much bigger French army on May 5, 1862. May the 5th - Cinco de Mayo - is now a national holiday. There is a fine fountain monument to the Mexican commander, Ignacio Zaragoza north of the forts.
Our guide also took us into the Barrio Xanenetla just south west of the forts, to give us a glimpse of where the people lived and, in particular, to see the murals with which they enliven their buildings.
Many walls are covered with colourful, imaginative scenes, very nicely executed.
Xanenetla is one of the oldest barrios in the city.
It was a really nice visit, more interesting than endless churches (though, of course, some are not to be missed!).
We walked around the city quite a bit looking at the different architecture which varies wildly from Spanish colonial, through Baroque to Art Deco.
Puebla has what distinguishes many an attractive city - a wealth of different styles of architecture randomly distributed, some colourful, some restrained, others fanciful and over-the-top. A mix of not only styles but materials and embellishments: ironwork balconies, decorative brickwork, tiled facades, pastel-painted walls.
The Edificio Baramar on Av. de la Reforma is a surprising and beautiful example of the diverse architectural styles in the city. Its stepped geometric roof line decorations, arched window embrasures and the arrangements of colourful patterned tiles are clearly influenced by Islamic designs.
