Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico

PARQUE DE CHAPULTEPEC

Bosque, Chapultepec

Promenade near Lake

Laguna de Chapultepec

Nezahualcoyotl aqueduct

Park Details

Seating area near Tamayo Museum

Castillo de Chapultepec

All pictures by Ignacio J. Padilla

As I was announced a winner of UC Berkeley's Geraldine Knight Traveling Fellowship I was exited to finally see Mexico's landscapes. Mexico was the land I was born, but I knew very little about its landscapes. In the Aztec language Nahualt, Chapultepec means "Grasshopper Hill". I chose to study Chapultepec Park because I because the Landscape world knows very little about it. Mexico's City is one of the biggest cities in the world. Therefore, it is very important for its citizens to have a place to retreat from all the pollution, concrete, asphalt, and steel that surrounds their every day lives. Chapultepec Park is the oldest park in the Americas. To me it is one of the most beautiful parks in the world. The park's most notable feature are tremendous ahuehuete trees. The Park has serve as a retreat to Aztec emperors in the late 15th and early 16th centuries; after the conquest, it was made a public park by the King of Spain in 1530. The park also has the only castle in the America's constructed in 1785, and served as home to Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez, and Emperor Maximilian. The major redesign of the park took place in 1906-07 and reopen to public in 1910. It is said that the park is the lugs of the City of Mexico, it encompasses 640 hectares, and with in the park you can find a variety of Museums, a Zoo, a Botanical Garden, and a theme park. Recently Mario Schjetnan has been responsible for rehabilitating and redesigning the park.