Zócalo de Oaxaca

The Zócalo, officially the Plaza de la Constitución, is the main square of Oaxaca and the point from which the colonial city was laid out. It was traced in 1529, when the Spanish organised the villa of Antequera, and the street grid of the centro grew outward from it. For most of the colonial period it was a bare plaza with a marble fountain, added in 1739. In the 19th century it gained gardens and a first bandstand, then a statue of Benito Juárez in 1885; in 1901 the statue was moved and the present art nouveau kiosk was built, a typical piece of the Porfirio Díaz years. Later works added green-stone fountains, and in 2005 the paving was redone following the square's original axes and diagonals.

Today it is closed to cars and shaded by big old trees, with arcaded portales lined with cafés and restaurants on its sides. The 19th-century Palacio de Gobierno fills the south side; it now holds a free museum with a large stairway mural by Arturo García Bustos on the history of Oaxaca. To the northwest the square runs into the Alameda de León, a second, greener plaza in front of the cathedral.

The Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, seat of the Archdiocese of Antequera, was begun in the 16th century and rebuilt several times after earthquakes; the present building dates from 1702–1733 and was consecrated in 1733. Its facade is carved in the green cantera typical of Oaxaca, and its towers were rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake. The Zócalo is where the city gathers: balloon and craft sellers, shoe-shiners and street performers fill it most days, and it is also the usual stage for teachers' and other protests, which sometimes set up camp here. On December 23 it hosts the Noche de Rábanos, and around Day of the Dead it fills with sand carpets and comparsas.