The general description of the ancient City by eye-witnesses does not
enable us to locate the position of the great Teocalli with exactness,
but further information can be gained by examining the allotment of
Solares or City lots to the Conquerors who took up their residence in
Mexico and to religious establishments; these allotments can in some
instances be traced through the recorded Acts of the Municipality.
(7th Disertacion, p. 140. Don LUCAS ALAMAN.) (Tracing A_{1}.)
“From the indisputable testimony of the Acts of the Municipality and
much other corroborative evidence one can see that the site of the
original foundation (the Monastery) of San Francisco was in the Calle de
Sta. Teresa on the side walk which faces South.
“At the meeting of the Municipality of 2nd May, 1525, there was granted
to Alonzo de Ávila a portion of the Solar between his house and _the
Monastery of San Francisco in this City_. This house of Alonzo de Ávila
stood in the Calle de Relox at the corner of the Calle de Sta. Teresa
(where now stands the druggist’s shop of Cervantes and Co.), and this is
certain as it is the same house which was ordered to be demolished and
[the site] sown with salt, as a mark of infamy, when the sons of Alonzo
de Ávila were condemned to death for complicity in the conspiracy
attributed to D. Martin Cortés. By the decree of the 1st June, 1574,
addressed to the Viceroy, Don Martin Enríquez, he was permitted to found
schools on this same site, with a command that the pillar and
inscription relating to the Ávilas which was within the same plot,
should be placed outside ‘in a place where it could be more open and
exposed.’ As the schools were not built on this site, the University
sold it on a quit rent (which it still enjoys) to the Convent of Sta.
Isabel, to which the two houses Nos. 1 and 2 of the 1st Calle de Relox
belong, which are the said druggist’s shop and the house adjoining it,
which occupy the site where the house of Alonzo de Ávila stood.
“In addition to this, by the titles of a house in the Calle de
Montealegre belonging to the convent of San Jeronimo which the Padre
Pichardo examined, it is certain that Bernadino de Albornoz, doubtless
the son of the Accountant Rodrigo de Albornoz, was the owner of the
houses which followed the house of Alonzo de Ávila in the Calle de Sta.
Teresa; and by the act of the Cabildo of the 31st Jan., 1529, it results
that this house of Albornoz was built on the land where stood the old
San Francisco, which the Municipality considered itself authorised to
dispose of as waste land.”
(DURAN, vol. ii. ch. lxxx.)
“The Idol Huitzilopochtli which we are describing ... had its site in
the houses of Alonzo de Ávila, which is now a rubbish heap.”
(ALAMAN, Octava Disertacion, p. 246.)
“One can cite what is recorded in the books of the Acts of the
Municipality in the Session of 22nd February, 1527, on which day, on the
petition of Gil González de Benavides, the said Señores (the Licenciate
Marcos de Aguilar, who at that time ruled it, and the members who were
present at the meeting) granted him one solar [city lot] situated in
this city bordering on the solar and houses of his brother Alonzo de
Ávila, which is (en la tercia parte donde estaba el Huichilobos) in the
third portion where Huichilobos[5] stood. It was shown in the 7th
Dissertation that these houses of Alonzo de Ávila were the two first in
the Ira Calle de Relox, turning the corner of the Calle de Sta. Teresa,
and consequently that the solar that was given to Gil González de
Benavides was the next one in the Calle de Relox, for the next house in
the Calle de Sta. Teresa was that of the Accountant Albornoz. This
opinion agrees with that of Padre Pichardo, who made such a lengthy
study of the subject, and who was able to examine the ancient titles of
many properties.”
In a note to the 2nd Dialogue of Cervantes Salazar, Don J. GARCIA
ICAZBALCETA discusses the position of the original Cathedral and
quotes a decree of the Cabildo, dated 8th Feb., 1527, allotting
certain sites as follows:—
“The said Señores [here follow the names of those present] declare that
inasmuch as in time past when the Factor and Veedor were called
Governors of New Spain they allotted certain Solares within this City,
_which Solares are facing Huichilobos_ (son frontero del Huichilobos),
which Solares (because the Lord Governor on his arrival together with
the Municipality reclaimed them, and allotted them to no one for
distribution) are vacant and are [suitable] for building and enclosure;
and inasmuch as the aforesaid is prejudicial to the ennoblement of this
city, and because their occupation would add to its dignity, they make a
grant of the said space of Solares, allotting in the first place ten
Solares for the church and churchyard, and for outbuildings in the
following manner:—Firstly they say that they constitute as a plaza (in
addition to the plaza in front of the new houses of the Lord Governor),
the site and space which is unoccupied in front of the corridors of the
other houses of the Governor where they are used to tilt with reeds, to
remain the same size that it is at present.
“At the petition of Cristóbal Flores, Alcalde, the said Señores grant to
him in this situation the Solar which is at the corner, fronting the
houses of Hernando Alonzo Herrero and the high roads, which (Solar) they
state it is their pleasure to grant to him.
“To Alonzo de Villanueva another Solar contiguous to that of the said
Cristóbal Flores, in front of the Solar of the Padre Luis Méndez, the
high road between them, etc.”
(Here follow the other grants.)
* * * * *
“Then the said Señores ... assign as a street for the exit and service
of the said Solares ... a space of 14 feet, which street must pass
between the Solar of Alonzo de Villanueva and that of Luis de la Torre
and pass through to the site of the Church, on one side being the Solar
of Juan de la Torre, and on the other the Solar of Gonzalo de Alvarado.”
In the same note Icazbalceta discusses the measurements of the Solares,
which appear to have varied between 141 × 141 Spanish feet (= 130 ¾′ ×
130¾′ English) and 150 × 150 Spanish feet (= 139′ × 139′ English), which
latter measurement was established by an Act of the Cabildo in Feb.
1537. He also printed with the note a plan of what he considered to be
the position of the Solares dealt with in this Act of Cabildo. This plan
is incorporated in Tracing A_{1}.
Plate C is a copy of a plan of the Temple Enclosure found with a Sahagun
MS., preserved in the Library of the Royal Palace at Madrid and
published by Dr. E. Seler in his pamphlet entitled ‘Die Ausgrabungen am
Orte des Haupttempels in Mexico’ (1904).
We know from Cortés’s own account, confirmed by Gomara, that the Great
Teocalli was so close to the quarters of the Spaniards that the Mexicans
were able to discharge missiles from the Teocalli into the Spanish
quarters, and according to Sahagun’s account the Mexicans hauled two
stout beams to the top of the Teocalli in order to hurl them against the
Palace of Axayacatl so as to force an entrance. It was on this account
Cortés made such a determined attack on the Teocalli and cleared it of
the enemy.
We also know from the Acts of the Cabildo that the group of Solares
beginning with that of Cristóbal Flores (Nos. 1–9) are described as
“frontero del Huichilobos,” _i. e._ opposite (the Teocalli of)
Huichilobos, and we also learn that the Solar of Alonzo de Avila was “en
la tercia parte donde estaba el Huichilobos,” _i. e._ in the third part
or portion where (the Teocalli of) Huichilobos stood. Alaman confesses
that he cannot understand this last expression, but I venture to suggest
that as the Temple Enclosure was divided unevenly by the line of the
Calle de Iztapalapa, two-thirds lying to the West of that line and
one-third to the East of it, the expression implies that the Teocalli
was situated in the Eastern third of the Enclosure. This would bring it
sufficiently near to the Palace of Axayacatl for the Mexicans to have
been able to discharge missiles into the quarters of the Spaniards. It
would also occupy the site of the Solar de Alonzo de Avila, and might be
considered to face the Solar of Cristóbal Flores and his neighbours, and
we should naturally expect to find it in line with the Calle de Tacuba.
Sahagun’s plan is not marked with the points of the compass, but if we
should give it the same orientation as Tracing A_{2}, the Great Teocalli
falls fairly into its place.
Measurements of the Great Teocalli.
There were two values to the Braza or Fathom in old Spanish measures,
one was the equivalent of 65·749 English inches, and the other and more
ancient was the equivalent of 66·768 English inches. In computing the
following measurements I have used the latter scale:—
Spanish. English.
1 foot = 11·128 inches.
3 feet = 1 vara = 33·384 „ = 2·782 feet.
2 varas = 1 Braza = 66·768 „ = 5·564 „
The Pace is reckoned as equal to 2·5 English feet and the Ell mentioned
by Tezozomoc as the Flemish Ell = 27·97 English inches or 2·33 English
feet.
There is a general agreement that the Teocalli was a solid quadrangular
edifice in the form of a truncated step pyramid.