Where Is Puebla — and
Why Should I Visit?
The city of Puebla is the capital of the state of the same name, located about 75 miles southeast of Mexico City. It’s best known for its Colonial architecture, influential cuisine, talavera pottery, and moderate climate.
In 1987, UNESCO named Puebla’s historic downtown as a World Heritage Center, citing the “new aesthetic concepts” that resulted from the blending of European, Arabic, and American styles in the 16th and 17th centuries and the preservation of “great religious structures” and “fine buildings like the old archbishop’s palace, as well as a host of houses with walls covered in tiles.” The city officially has more than 2,600 historic buildings.
One of those structures, the Santa Rosa convent, provides a classic example of how talavera tiles were incorporated into buildings. Techniques for making the earthenware (from which plates, cups, vases, lamps, clocks, and other housewares are still made) were introduced by early Spanish settlers; the glazed pottery has since become a collector’s item and synonymous with Puebla. The Santa Rosa convent is also where, in her talavera kitchen, a nun cooked up the first batch of mole poblano, which today rivals the taco as the national dish of Mexico.
Puebla is also the reason that anyone celebrates Cinco de Mayo: It was here that General Zaragoza led Mexican soldiers to an unlikely (and temporary) victory over the much larger French army in 1862; the city was later officially renamed Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza in the general’s honor. In May 2012, Puebla plans to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this historic event with a huge fiesta, including a military parade, a re-enactment of the battle, and an international mole festival.
The area’s history dates back much farther than modern-day conquerors and revolutionaries. Puebla borders Cholula, one of the longest continually occupied sites in the Americas, dating to at least the first century after Christ. Through the ages, Toltecs, Olmecs, and other indigenous groups inhabited this important religious center until the Spanish took over (with a bloody massacre) in 1519. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Great Pyramid of Tepanapa is the largest monument ever constructed, with a total volume of 4.3 million cubic yards (about 1 million more than the Khufu pyramid at Giza in Egypt).
Today, Puebla is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and home to some 1.5 million people. It is among the most affluent and safest places in the country. According to recent FBI statistics, the annual homicide rate for the entire state of Puebla is 1.85 per 100,000 people — well below the national average of 5.0 in the United States. In 2006, the Puebla state economy ranked seventh out of 31, contributing US$27.6 billion to the GDP, thanks in part of the production of cars and car parts, paper, petrochemicals, sugar, and textiles.
Puebla is a hot travel destination this year, in part thanks to the 150th anniversary of Cinco de Mayo and the mole festival in May. Among the city’s many recent accolades, readers of the Lonely Planet guidebooks voted Puebla as one of the Best Places to Travel in 2012, and The New York Times Travel section ranked Puebla #13 on its list of Places to Go in 2012.
Map design: Juan Pablo Ramírez Ponce
Page updated January 14, 2012.