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.”