{"id":4083,"date":"2019-04-29T11:39:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T17:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/?p=4083"},"modified":"2019-04-29T11:39:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T17:39:46","slug":"the-history-of-chapultepec-castle-in-1-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/the-history-of-chapultepec-castle-in-1-minute\/","title":{"rendered":"The History Of Chapultepec Castle In 1 Minute"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Lauren Cocking.<\/a> Culture Trip.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Chapultepec Castle, situated in the lush and sprawling Bosque de Chapultepec in central\u00a0Mexico City<\/a>, is emblematic of Mexico\u2019s capital and has a suitably regal and intriguing history to match. Named for the Nahuatl word\u00a0chapoltep<\/em>\u0113c,\u00a0<\/em>which means \u2018at the grasshopper\u2019s hill\u2019, it sits on what the\u00a0Aztecs<\/a>\u00a0considered a sacred hilltop, meaning the glorious palace offers spectacular views over the city and surrounding forest.<\/p>\n

Construction began in 1775, on the orders of Viceroy Bernardo de G\u00e1lvez, before being taken over by Manuel Agust\u00edn Mascar\u00f3 following the departure of the original architect. This sparked rumor that Mascar\u00f3 wanted to rebel against the Spanish crown although this claim remains unsubstantiated. However, the original brains behind the operation, Bernardo de G\u00e1lvez,\u00a0did\u00a0<\/em>pass away from alleged poisoning. Eventually, after its completion and numerous attempts on the part of the\u00a0Spanish Crown<\/a>\u00a0to sell the castle at a cut price, Mexico City\u2019s municipal government purchased it in 1806. Despite being abandoned during the\u00a0War of Independence<\/a>, the castle rose to notoriety once again when it became the site of the deaths of the\u00a0Ni\u00f1os H\u00e9roes<\/em>\u00a0who died defending it in 1847 during the Mexican-American war.<\/p>\n

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It still reigns as the only royal castle in\u00a0North America<\/a>\u00a0that actually served as residence for royalty; Mexican Emperor Maxmilian I and Empress Carlota lived there from 1864. During their period of residence the castle was actually known as Castillo de Miravalle. It also underwent refurbishments in a Neo-Classic style which supposedly made the palace more habitable. It was thanks to royalty living there, on what were still the outskirts of Mexico City, that brought to fruition the development of a thoroughfare which we now know as the Paseo de la Reforma.<\/p>\n

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After housing royalty, Chapultepec Castle was an observatory, a military college (again) and even an official guesthouse for foreign dignitaries. It was L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas in 1939 though who established a decree stating that it should be the seat of the\u00a0Museo Nacional de Historia<\/a>, which still calls Castillo de Chapultepec its home to this day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In popular culture, the castle was used during the filming of\u00a0Baz Luhrmann<\/a>\u2019s wildly successful\u00a0Romeo + Juliet\u00a0<\/em>film. While it\u2019s alleged that the castle is\u00a0haunted<\/a>, reports include hearing ghostly footsteps moving down the corridors and seeing translucent figures in the darkness, you\u2019d probably be more likely to catch a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio than anything genuinely bloodcurdling.<\/p>\n

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By\u00a0Lauren Cocking. Culture Trip.\u00a0 Chapultepec Castle, situated in the lush and sprawling Bosque de Chapultepec in central\u00a0Mexico City, is emblematic of Mexico\u2019s capital and has a suitably regal and intriguing history to match. Named for the Nahuatl word\u00a0chapoltep\u0113c,\u00a0which means \u2018at the grasshopper\u2019s hill\u2019, it sits on what the\u00a0Aztecs\u00a0considered a sacred hilltop, meaning the glorious palace […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}