Tepotzotlán

History

The first people known to have lived here were Otomi, who later came under the influence of Teotihuacan. As that city declined, Nahua and Chichimeca groups took over the area. In the 15th century its ruler negotiated an alliance with Moctezuma I that let the dominion, by then called Tepotzotlán, keep much of its independence until Tenochtitlan fell in 1521. The name comes from Nahuatl and refers to a hunchback, probably because of the shape of the nearby hills.

Franciscan friars began evangelizing in 1525 and built a hermitage where the church of San Pedro Apóstol now stands. The Jesuits arrived in 1580 and founded schools for language training, for indigenous boys and for novices. The College of San Francisco Javier made Tepotzotlán one of the leading educational centers of New Spain, and the order's haciendas drove the local economy.

The Jesuits were expelled in 1767, leaving their great aqueduct, the Arcos del Sitio, unfinished; it was completed in the 19th century by Manuel Romero de Terreros. The college complex later became the National Museum of the Viceroyalty, which holds thousands of objects from the colonial era.