Favorite Places: Savoring the Pleasures of Puebla, Mexico

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 11 September 2013 | 17.35

Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

Frying molotes, savory pastries, in Puebla.

There are places to which we travel, and imagine staying. Why not just quit our job, rent a little apartment, tell the folks at home we'll be back when our money runs out?

For me, one such place is Puebla. An easy two-hour drive or bus ride southeast of Mexico City, Puebla seems light years away from the pollution and buzz of the capital. With a temperate mountain climate, a relatively prosperous and relaxed atmosphere and the best street food in Mexico (or so Poblanos claim, and why not believe them?), Puebla is also visually beautiful. Its historical center, the centro, contains so many gems of Spanish colonial architecture, such a range of beautiful churches, and so many vintage buildings covered in the colorful, patterned Talavera tiles for which the city is famous, that it has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site.

The fantasy of remaining indefinitely in Puebla used to come over me mostly in the Zócalo, the verdant central plaza, where it's pleasant to sit on a bench in the shade, and where there is always something to see. In mid-July, my visit coincided with graduation — Puebla is an important university town — and it was fun to watch the groups of students in academic gowns, together with their proud families, celebrating and taking photos. Every generation — high school kids, mothers pushing strollers, young lovers, skateboarders, elderly couples — gravitates to the Zócalo, where you can always tell, from the images on the balloons being sold by the vendors, which cartoon figure has captured the popular imagination; this summer, it was definitely Despicable Me.

I still love spending time in the Zócalo, but the place where I most often imagined staying in Puebla forever shifted, on this visit, to the rooftop cafe of the Museo Amparo. How wonderful it would be to come here every morning, set up my laptop, sip the cafe's excellent coffee and look up from my computer to see one of the most beautiful vistas imaginable — the rooftops of Puebla set against the background of the surrounding countryside.

Two blocks from the Zócalo, the Museo Amparo houses an impressive collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial art and hosts a series of expertly curated temporary exhibits. For the past several years, the Amparo has been undergoing a major redesign and renovation; the pre-Columbian section will be closed for construction until late fall. But the compensation is the spare, elegant rooftop garden from which you can see the centro, a vista dominated by the dark stone of the monumental cathedral.

Begun in the 16th century, the enormous structure was consecrated three-quarters of a century later and completed over several hundred years, during which the interior was furnished with elaborately carved choir stalls and a mammoth pipe organ; the canopy over the central altar was added in the early 19th century. It is said that an angel appeared to help the builders manage the challenging task of installing the eight-and-a-half-ton bell in the south tower. Surrounding the cathedral, visible from the terrace of the Museo Amparo, the domes of nearby churches covered in brightly patterned tile give the roofscape an oddly Middle Eastern appearance.

Puebla contains hundreds of churches, ranging in style from the austere San Juan de Letran, decorated with wooden statues depicting (in gory detail) the wounds of Christ and the suffering of the souls in purgatory, to, at the opposite extreme, the Rosary Chapel in the Church of Santo Domingo. Much of the chapel — a masterpiece of Baroque architecture, begun in 1571 and finished in 1659 — is covered in gold leaf; nearly every square inch is adorned with painted panels, statues of angels and saints, onyx pillars, Talavera tile, vines, flowers, swirls and arabesques of exuberant golden tracery. Restored in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the chapel continues to play an important role in the spiritual life of Poblanos, who celebrate weddings and baptisms under its gleaming dome.


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Favorite Places: Savoring the Pleasures of Puebla, Mexico

Dengan url

http://travelwisatawan.blogspot.com/2013/09/favorite-places-savoring-pleasures-of.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Favorite Places: Savoring the Pleasures of Puebla, Mexico

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Favorite Places: Savoring the Pleasures of Puebla, Mexico

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger