Chapultepec Castle
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Chapultepec Castle (Castillo de Chapultepec in Spanish) is located on top of Chapultepec Hill. The name Chapultepec stems from the Náhuatl word chapoltepēc which means "at the grasshopper's hill". It is located in the middle of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City at a height of 2,325 meters above sea level. The building has served several purposes during its history, including that of Military Academy, Imperial residence, Presidential home, observatory and currently museum. It serves today as the Mexican National Museum of History. Worth mentioning is the fact that it is the only castle in North America that was ever used as residence by a ruling European sovereign (during the Second Mexican Empire).
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[edit] Colonial Period
In 1785 Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez ordered the construction of a country house at the highest point of Chapultepec Hill. Francisco Bambitelli, Lieutenant Colonel of the Spanish Army and engineer drew up the blueprint and began the construction on August 16 of the same year following a baroque style.
After Bambitelli's departure to Havana, Captain Manuel Agustín Mascaró took over the leadership of the project and during his tenure the works proceeded at a rapid pace. Mascaró was accused of building a fortress with the intent of rebelling against the Spanish Crown from there. His sudden death on November 8, 1786 fueled speculation that he may have been poisoned; however no evidence has ever been found supporting this claim.
Without an engineer in charge, the Crown ordered the building to be auctioned to a price equivalent to one fifth of the total already spent of the project. After finding no buyers Viceroy Juan Vicente Güermes Pacheco intended the building to house the General Archive of the Kingdom of the New Spain; that idea was not to prosper either despite already having the blueprints adapted for this purpose.
Alexander von Humboldt visited the site in 1803 and condemned the sale of the palace’s windows by the Royal Treasury as a way of raising funds for the Crown. The building was finally bought in 1806 by the municipal government of Mexico City.
[edit] Independence
Chapultepec Castle was abandoned during the Mexican War of Independence (1810 – 1821) and many years later until 1833. On that year the building was decreed to become the location of the Colegio Militar (Military Academy); as a consequence several structural modifications had to be done, including the addition of the watchtower known as Caballero Alto ("Tall Knight").
On September 13, 1847, the Niños Héroes died defending the palace while it was taken by American Marines during the Battle of Chapultepec of the Mexican-American War. They are honored with a large mural on the ceiling above the main entrance to the castle [1].
Several new rooms were built on the second floor of the palace during the tenure of President Miguel Miramón, who was also an alumnus of the Military Academy.
[edit] Second Mexican Empire
The palace started to acquire its modern look during the Second Mexican Empire, when Mexican Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and his wife Empress Carlota established their Imperial residence there in 1864. The Emperor hired several European and Mexican architects, among them Julius Hofmann, Carl Gangolf Kayser, Carlos Schaffer, Eleuterio Méndez and Ramón Rodríguez Arangoity, to realize the several projects which followed a neoclassical style of architecture and rendered the palace into a more inhabitable place. Botanist Wilhelm Knechtel was in charge of creating the aereal garden located on the roof of the building. Additionally, the Emperor brought from Europe several pieces of furniture, art and many other fine household items that are still exhibited to this day.
At the time the palace was still located at the outskirts of Mexico City. Maximilian ordered the construction of a straight boulevard connecting the Imperial residence with the city centre, and naming it Paseo de la Emperatriz ("Promenade of the Empress"). Following the restoration of the Republic in 1867 by President Benito Juárez and the end of the Reform War (Guerra de Reforma) the boulevard was renamed as Paseo de la Reforma.
[edit] Modern Era
The building fell into disuse once more after the fall of the Second Mexican Empire in 1867. Almost ten years later, in 1876, a decree established an Astronomical, Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory on the site, which was opened in 1878. However, the observatory was only functional for five years after it was decided to move it to the former residence of the Archbishop in Tacubaya. The reason was to allow the return of the Colegio Militar to the premises as well as transforming the building into the presidential residence.
The palace was subject of several structural changes from 1882 and during the term of President Porfirio Díaz. The other Presidents who made the palace their official residence were Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles, Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodríguez.
Finally on February 3, 1939 President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed a law that established Chapultepec Castle as the seat of the National Museum of History (Museo Nacional de Historia) with the collections of the former National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography. The museum was opened on September 27, 1944. President Cárdenas moved the official Mexican presidential residence to Los Pinos, and never lived in Chapultepec Castle.
In 1996, the castle was a film location for the Academy Award-nominated movie, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
In the 2006 video game 'Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter' a level existed in and around the castle.
[edit] Gallery
 Facade and balcony of the west wing |
 East wing or Alcázar |
 Another view of the Castle |
 Interior gardens in the Castle |
 A fountain at the Castle |
 The watchtower known as Caballero Alto |
 Monument to the Niños Héroes. Chapultepec Castle can be seen in the background |
