| Note: | L41 |
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|---|---|---|
| Object Name: | Relief on main facade of the church of monastery of Huaquechula | |
| Creation Date: | 16th Century | |
| Culture: | Mexican Colonial | |
| Location: | Monastery of Huaquechula, Puebla, Mexico | |
| Repository: | ||
| Image source: | © Dr. Manuel Aguilar | |
| The town of Huaquechula was founded by Xelhuec, a legendary Toltec ruler. During the Conquest, there was in Huaquechula a bloody battle in which Cortes defeated a very large Aztec army. In approximately 1534, Franciscan friars came to Huaquechula from Huejotzingo, walking through the mountains. They arrived very ragged and tired. The native chief of the town warmly received them and gave them new clothes. The friars appropriately christened Don Martin after St. Martin of Tours, a fouth century knight who divided his cloak with a beggar and converted to Christianity afterwards. In this imporatant pre-Columbian town, the Codex Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca was written approximately between 1550 and 1570. The town had a legendary prestige associated with warfare. The monastery of San Juan Bautista in its present structure was built between 1569 and 1593 under the supervision of the famous millenarist Franciscan Fray Geronimo Mendieta. Over the door in the cloister, there is a curious mural painting of the Annunciation to Mary by the archangel Gabriel. The Christian image taken from a medieval engraving is flanked by an eagle and a jaguar painted in typical prehispanic Codex style. | ||
