Casa Denegrida de Moctezuma

Last updated
Casa Denegrida de Moctezuma
Alternative nameBlack House of Moctezuma
Location Mexico City
History
Materialstone, basalt
Cultures Aztec
Site notes
Excavation dates2008
ArchaeologistsElsa Hernández Pons

The Casa Denegrida de Moctezuma (The Black House of Moctezuma) was part of the royal palace and chambers of Tenochtitlan's ninth tlatoani Moctezuma II. The Black House, or more accurately the black room, was a windowless room fully painted in black where Moctezuma would meditate. [1] [2] The floor was made of large irregular black basalt slabs. [3] [4]

Contents

History

As soon as 1535, the Mexican Mint (Casa de Moneda de América Latina) was built on top of the remains of the Casa Denegrida. In 1850, minting operations stopped and the building became the Museo Nacional de las Culturas. [5]

In November 2008, a group of archaeologists led by Elsa Hernández Pons working at 13 Moneda St. uncovered pieces of a wall and a basalt floor. The archaeologists believed it was the Casa Denegrida described by Spanish conquerors where Moctezuma II would meditate and practice shamanic rituals. [1] [2] It is believed that the Black House was where Moctezuma II saw the return of the Spaniards as the return of Quetzalcoatl. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Mint</span>

La Casa de Moneda de México is the national mint of Mexico and is the oldest mint in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)</span> Archeological museum in Mexico

The National Museum of Anthropology is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Palace (Mexico)</span> Palace in Mexico City

The National Palace is the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. Since 2018 it has also served as the official residence for the President of Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución. This site has been a palace for the ruling class of Mexico since the Aztec Empire, and much of the current palace's building materials are from the original one that belonged to the 16th-century leader Moctezuma II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casa de Moneda de la República Argentina</span> Argentine government agency

The Casa de Moneda de la República Argentina is the Argentine mint, controlled by the Argentine government and administratively subordinated to the Ministry of Economy. It was established in 1875 as "Casa de Moneda de la Nación".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic center of Mexico City</span> Place in Mexico City, Mexico

The historic center of Mexico City, also known as the Centro or Centro Histórico, is the central neighborhood in Mexico City, Mexico, focused on the Zócalo and extending in all directions for a number of blocks, with its farthest extent being west to the Alameda Central. The Zocalo is the largest plaza in Latin America. It can hold up to nearly 100,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexico–Spain relations</span> Bilateral relations

Mexico–Spain relations are the bilateral relations between Mexico and Spain. Both nations are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Nacional de las Culturas</span>

The Museo Nacional de las Culturas is a national museum in Mexico City dedicated to education about the world's cultures, both past and present. It is housed in a colonial-era building that used to be the mint for making coins. Prior to this, the site was the home of the location of the Moctezuma's Black House. The mint was moved to Apartado Street in 1850, and the building was used for various purposes until it was converted to its current use in 1966.

Museo de Trajes Regionales is located in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The museum displays more than 100 costumes and dress from the indigenous populations of Chiapas. This is unique because typically all clothing and personal possessions are buried with the dead. Jewelry, musical instruments, costume accessories, religious objects, hats, masks, animal skins and statuettes are on display. The tour is given by the museum collector and owner Sergio Castro Martinez, a knowledgeable local humanitarian. He describes the locations, dress, ceremonies, ways and daily life of the indigenous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Mexico City</span> Art museum in Mexico

The Museum of Mexico City is located at Pino Suarez 30, a few blocks south of the Zocalo, on what was the Iztapalapa Causeway, near where Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma II met for the first time. This building used to be the palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, who were the descendants of one of the conquistadors with Cortés. The house was extensively remodeled during the colony to much the appearance that it has today and remained in the family until 1960, when the Mexico City government acquired it from them in order to found the Museum that is found there today. The museum contains a number of elements of the old palace as well as 26 rooms dedicated to the history and development of Mexico City from Aztec times to the present. It also contains a library and the studios of painter Joaquín Clausell, who lived here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casas Nuevas de Moctezuma</span>

Casas Nuevas de Moctezuma or tecpan is the name of a pre-hispanic residential complex composed of five interconnected palaces with large platforms. The complex served as the royal palace and chambers of Tenochtitlan's ninth emperor Moctezuma II, who was the Aztec leader during the arrival of Hernán Cortés.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Mint (Spain)</span> Spanish public business entity

The Royal Mint of Spain is the national mint of Spain. The FNMT-RCM is a public corporation that is attached to the Ministry of Economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonardo López Luján</span>

Leonardo Náuhmitl López Luján is an archaeologist and one of the leading researchers of pre-Hispanic Central Mexican societies and the history of archaeology in Mexico. He is director of the Templo Mayor Project in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) since 1991 and son of renowned historian Alfredo López Austin. He is fellow of El Colegio Nacional, the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baluarte de Santiago</span>

The Baluarte de Santiago, also known as the Bastion of Gunpowder, is located on Street Francisco Canal S/N, between Avenues Gómez Farías and 16 Septiembre, in the port city of Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico.

Paulina Lavista is a Mexican photographer, noted for her controversial work which has tested the limits of the field. She is the daughter of a composer and a painter, beginning a career in modeling and cinema before moving into photographic work in the 1960s. She began with portrait work, with one of her first clients being longtime partner Salvador Elizondo, and later breaking into more artistic work with a series of nudes for the magazine Su Otro Yo. She has photographed many subjects from the Mexican art scene as well as images of people in every day activity, mostly in Mexico. She is a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

Beatriz Barba Ahuactzin was a Mexican academic, anthropologist, and archaeologist, who was the second woman to earn a degree in archaeology in her country. She was a member of the National System of Researchers from 1985 and a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Upon her fortieth anniversary of teaching, in 1991, she was honored with the gold Ignacio Altamirano Medal by the government of Mexico and the Secretariat of Education. In 2013, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) paid tribute to her life's work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tepoztlán Ex Convento Museum</span> Mexican museum

The Tepoztlán Ex Convento Museum is a museum located at the Ex Convento Dominican Church in Tepoztlán, Mexico. The church was built by the Tepoztecan Indians under the orders of the Dominican friars between 1555 and 1580, dedicated to the Virgin of the Nativity. In 1993, INAH created a restoration project and in 1994 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This site is the parish of the Nativity and the Museum and Historical Documentation Center of Tepoztlán.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plaza Manuel Gamio</span> Plaza in Mexico City

The Plaza Manuel Gamio is a plaza located in historic center of Mexico City, Mexico. It is located between the archaeological zone of the Templo Mayor and the tabernacle of the Metropolitan Cathedral. It was named in honor of Manuel Gamio, the archaeologist of the excavations of the ceremonial precinct of the Mexica, and includes the space between the streets of Moneda and a fragment of the República de Guatemala to the north. Due to its proximity to the Templo Mayor, it is a frequent site of important finds from ancient Tenochtitlan and due to its proximity to the site where the first urban layout of the current Mexican capital was made in 1522, it is close to places where the first headquarters of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico was established, the first headquarters of the Mexican Mint, the archbishop's house and the aforementioned cathedral and the first Ethnographic Museum of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), among others.

References

  1. 1 2 Montezuma's palace unearted in Mexico, Nbcnews.com, 11 June 2008
  2. 1 2 Moctezuma Palace Structures Discovered, Inah.gob.mx, 9 June 2008
  3. (in Spanish) Descubren estructuras prehispánicas Archived 2022-05-16 at the Wayback Machine , Inah.gob.mx, 6 June 2008
  4. (in Spanish) Hallados los restos del palacio del emperador Moctezuma en Ciudad de México, Elpais.com, 6 June 2008
  5. (in Spanish) Mariana Gaxiola, La historia de la casa denegrida, el lugar donde Moctezuma meditaba, Mxcity.mx
  6. Peter O. Koch, The Aztecs, the Conquistadors, and the Making of Mexican Culture, Books.google.com, 2005