Toluca de Lerdo Attractions

How to get there

From Mexico City by rail about 2 hours; by bus about 1 hour; by car 67km/42mi on the MEX 15.

Toluca, the capital of the Estado de México, is situated in the mountain valley of the same name to the west of Mexico City. It is the highest large city in Mexico and has become increasingly important in the last few years both as a communications and trading centre and as an industrial base. From the visitor's point of view the city has less to offer than the surrounding area.

History

The area around Toluca (Náhuatl: "Tollucán" = "place of the reeds") was probably under the dominance of Teotihuacán during the Classic period. The Matlatzinca (Náhuatl: "the people with small nets"), a Nahua tribe with linguistic links with the Otomí, who took on pronounced Toltec characteristics, probably settled here in the middle of the 13th c. In the 14th c. they came under the rule of the princes who reigned in the valley of Anáhuac. At the beginning of the 15th c. they were still allied to the Aztecs but were finally subjugated by them and expelled into part of what is today the region of Michoacán. The Matlatzinca had to pay the price of several rebellions against their Aztec rulers with large numbers of human sacrifices. They gave the Spanish limited assistance in the conquest of Tenochtitlán. In 1521 the Spanish under Gonzalo de Umbria explored the valley of Toluca, in 1529 the Franciscans founded their first convent there and in 1667 Toluca de San Joséwas granted its town charter. In 1830 it became the capital of the Estado de México and at the end of the 19th c. the town received its secondary name of de Lerdo in memory of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.

Sights

The attractive main square (Zócalo, Plaza de los Mártires) is dominated by the cathedral, a Neo-Classical building dating from the 19th c. The government palace (Palacio de Gobierno) dating from 1872 adjoins it to the north. A long shopping street with 120 archways (portales) stretches the length of one block to the right of the main square. Not far away stands the 18th c. Baroque church of El Carmen; in its convent is the Museo de las Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Art).