THE TEMPLE ENCLOSURE.
The Temple Enclosure was surrounded by a high masonry wall (Anon., Torq., Moto.) known as the Coatenamitl or Serpent Wall, which some say was embattled (Torq. quoting Sahagun, Moto.). There were four principal openings (Anon., Torq., Moto., Duran) facing the principal streets or causeways (Torq., Moto., Duran). (Tezozomoc alone says there were only three openings—east, west and south—and three only are shown on Sahagun’s plan.) “It was about 200 brazas square” (Sahagun), i. e. about 1013 English feet square. However, Sahagun’s plan (Plate C) shows an oblong.
As the four openings faced the principal streets or causeways, the prolongation of the line of the causeways of Tacuba and Iztapalapa must have intersected within the Temple Enclosure. This intersection coincides with junction of the modern streets of Escalerillas, Relox, Sta. Teresa, and Seminario (see Plate A).
We have now to consider the boundaries of the Temple Enclosure, and this can best be done by establishing the positions of the Temple of Tezcatlipoca and the Palace of Axayacatl.
The Temple of Tezcatlipoca. (Tracing A2.)
(Duran, ch. lxxxiii.)
“This Temple was built on the site (afterwards) occupied by the Archbishop’s Palace, and if anyone who enters it will take careful notice he will see that it is all built on a terrace without any lower windows, but the ground floor (primer suelo) all solid.”
This building is also mentioned in the 2nd Dialogue of Cervantes Salazar[[1]], where, in reply to a question, Zuazo says:—“It is the Archbishop’s Palace, and you must admire that first story (primer piso) adorned with iron railings which, standing at such a height above the ground, rests until reaching the windows on a firm and solid foundation.” To this Alfaro replies:—“It could not be demolished by Mines.”
The Arzobispado, which still occupies the same site in the street of that name, must therefore have been originally built on the solid foundation formed by the base of the Teocalli of Tezcatlipoca.
The Palace of Axayacatl. (Tracing A2.)
(‘Descripción de las dos Piedras, etc.,’ 1790, by Don Antonio de Leon y Gama. Bustamante, Edition ii. p. 35.)
“In these houses of the family property of the family called Mota[[2]], in the street of the Indio Triste.... These houses were built in the 16th century on a part of the site occupied by the great Palace of the King Axayacatl, where the Spaniards were lodged when first they entered Mexico, which was contiguous (estaba inmediato) with the wall that enclosed the great Temple.”
Don Carlos M. de Bustamante adds in a footnote to this passage:—“Fronting these same buildings, behind the convent of Santa Teresa la Antigua, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was worshipped, which was placed in that position to perpetuate the memory that here mass was first celebrated in Mexico, in the block (cuadra) where stood the gate of the quarters of the Spaniards.... This fact was often related to me by my deceased friend, Don Francisco Sedano, one of the best antiquarians Mexico has known.”
(García Icazbalceta, note to 2nd Dialogue of Cervantes Salazar, p. 185.)
“The Palace of Axayacatl, which served as a lodging or quarters for the Spaniards, stood in the Calle de Sta. Teresa and the 2a Calle del Indio Triste.”
So far as I can ascertain, no eye-witness or early historian describes the position of the Palace of Axayacatl, but tradition and a consensus of later writers place it outside the Temple Enclosure to the north of the Calle de Sta. Teresa and to the west of the 2a Calle del Indio Triste. No northern boundary is given.
Taking the point A in the line of the Calle de Tacuba as the hypothetical site of the middle of the entrance in the Eastern wall of the Temple Enclosure and drawing a line A-B to the Eastern end of the C. de Arzobispado, we get a distance of about 450 feet; extend this line in a northerly direction for 450 feet to the point C, and the line B-C may be taken as the Eastern limit of the Temple Enclosure.
The Northern and Southern entrance to the Enclosure must have been at D and E, that is in the line of the Calle de Iztapalapa.
Extending the line B-E twice its own length in a westerly direction brings us to the South end of the Empedradillo at the point F.
Completing the Enclosure we find the Western entrance at G in the line of the Calle de Tacuba and the north-west corner at H.
This delimitation of the Temple Enclosure gives a parallelogram measuring roughly 900′ × 1050′, not at all too large to hold the buildings it is said to have contained, and not far from Sahagun’s doscientos brazas en cuadro (1012′ × 1012′).
It divides the Enclosure longitudinally into two equal halves, which is on the side of probability.
It leaves two-thirds of the Enclosure to the West and one-third to the East of the line of the Calle de Iztapalapa[[3]].
It includes the site of the Temple of Tezcatlipoca.
It agrees with the generally accepted position of the Palace of Axayacatl and of the Aviary.
It includes the site of the Teocalli, the base of which was discovered at No. 8, 1ra Calle de Relox y Cordobanes.
It will now be seen how closely this agrees with the description given by Don Lucas Alaman, one of the best modern authorities on the topography of the City.
(Disertaciones, by Don Lucas Alaman, 1844. Octava Disertacion, vol. ii. p. 246.)
“We must now fix the site occupied by the famous Temple of Huichilopochtli[[4]]. As I have stated above, on the Southern side it formed the continuation of the line from the side walk (acera) of the Arzobispado towards the Alcaiceria touching the front of the present Cathedral. On the West it ran fronting the old Palace of Montezuma, with the street now called the Calle del Empedradillo (and formerly called the Plazuela del Marques del Valle) between them, but on the East and North it extended far beyond the square formed by the Cathedral and Seminario, and in the first of these directions reached the Calle Cerrada de Sta. Teresa, and followed the direction of this last until it met that of the Ensenanza now the Calle Cordobanes and the Montealegre.”