Plaza de Santo Domingo

Plaza de Santo Domingo. Two blocks north of the Zocalo, Santo Domingo square is the best preserved Viceregal square in town, during Aztec times the whole area was the house of Cuauhtemoc the last Aztec lord, then after the conquest the first to establish themselves in the area were the Dominicans.

The square is a box full of baroque jewels, to the north the Church of Santo Domingo, NE the Inquisition Palace, E. the Royal Customs House, S. the house of the Mayorazgo de Medina on the same side of the street further west a house from the XVIIc occupying the place of the House of Malinche, the translator and lover of Cortés, truly instrumental in the conquest of the Aztec empire, to the west the Evangelist portal, most of these buildings will be described in separate entries.

The square has preserved a rare harmony, most of the buildings facades are from the XVIII c. all of them  baroque, the skyline is uniform and also the construction material used, at the center of the square a very discreet monument to Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez who participated in the Independence struggle.

The square has witnessed a number of stories and anecdotes, one of them in the 1920´s an incident known as ¨las pelonas¨(young women, who followed de European and American fashion of wearing their hair very short, a la garcon), well at that time the Inquisition Palace was the School of Medicine (frightening isn´t it?) and the students subjected to ridicule  a group of Pelonas passing by, word reached the Military Academy, some 4km west of the square and a group of cadets decided to defend the honor of las pelonas, so a cadet battalion altogether with cannons made their way to the square to request an apology to las pelonas, obviously the Medical students were apologetic indeed.