Plaza de Santo Domingo — Attraction in Mexico City

I was here briefly and found time to sit and take some selfies. There are certainly some quirks in this Plaza, which I think is rather very close to the Cathedral, which seems to me is the grander version. I discovered this smaller Plaza by walking around the area & not looking into the maps. The vendors are mostly absent here for some reason. You see the numerous vendors of all kinds of stuff just 1 or 2 blocks away.

I didn't get inside the church, which has a very beautiful old facade, probably one of the best preserved in this historic district. I saw some old buildings next to one another that are probably turned into private apartments as there are buzzers by the ground floors. I even saw a little girl by the ground floor & who gave me a certain notice by the way she looked at me. I can imagine she belongs to a well connected family living in the area.

If you're into old edifices, come and check this place out. I wish there are actually hotels here where curious visitors like myself may choose to stay. Bur then again, it's problematic when it comes to dealing with using vehicles. The area is not really convenient for cars passing and stopping by. Too much traffic of almost all kinds, if the cops won't...

Preconquest Tenochtitlan was built in the center of the inland lake system, with the city reachable by canoe and by wide causeways to the mainland. The causeways were rebuilt under Spanish rule with indigenous labor.

Colonial Spanish cities were constructed on a grid pattern, if no geographical obstacle prevented it. In Mexico City, the Zócalo (main square) was the central place from which the grid was then built outward. The Spanish lived in the area closest to the main square in what was known as the traza, in orderly, well laid-out streets. Indian residences were outside that exclusive zone and houses were haphazardly located.[42]

Spaniards sought to keep Indians separate from Spaniards but since the Zócalo was a center of commerce for Indians, they were a constant presence in the central area, so strict segregation was never enforced.[43] At intervals Zócalo was where major celebrations took place as well as executions. It was also the site of two major riots in the seventeenth century, one in 1624, the...

Espacio histórico de suma importancia en la vida cotidiana de la ciudad de México. La iglesia y el ex convento dominico parecen ajenos al ajetreo urbano y comercial del portal de los evangelistas, en especial, a la actividad comercial de los cajones de imprenta que los transeúntes visitan. Además, los edificios de índole civil y comercial alrededor de la plaza, a saber, el antiguo edificio de la Aduana y el palacio inquisitorial, de majestuosa portada achaflanada, sedes de la Secretaria de Educación Pública y del museo de Medicina de la UNAM, respectivamente, revisten al conjunto arquitectónico con un aire de nostalgia gracias a la cantera y el tezontle tallado que exhiben en sus paredes. La traza de la plaza es del siglo XVI, ésta fungía como el preámbulo de paso y recepción social de las comitivas de funcionarios civiles y religiosos, antes de alcanzar la Plaza mayor, hoy conocida como el "zócalo" por el pedestal que se erigió en el siglo XIX para una efigie ecuestre. En el espacio del atrio de la iglesia y los portales de comercio se preparaba una recepción festiva para los dignatarios peninsulares, principalmente, virreyes, arzobispos y cabildo, quienes provenían de la metrópoli para ocupar sus sedes de gobierno; arcos triunfales, piras efimeras y festivos pendones engalanaban las calles y los balcones de los edificios adjuntos. La orden de santo Domingo de Guzmán, fundada en el siglo XV para enfrentar la herejía musulmana, asentó su convento grande e iglesia principal con el fin de evangelizar a los naturales del valle de México Tenochtitlán. A partir de esta sede, se administró la actividad religiosa de la orden mendicante en las diferentes provincias de la Nueva España. Es obligatoria la visita a la iglesia y acercarse a sus capillas y retablos barrocos, de soporte salomónico y estípite, y admirar la ornamentación de la capilla del Rosario. Por último, la calle contigua, Leandro Valle, ofrece a la vista los arcos y el patio primitivo del claustro...