With a population of c1.4 million, the city of Puebla was by far the largest of the WHS-inscribed provincial “colonial” Centros Historicos we saw during our tour of Central Mexico in Mar 2008 (as well as being the 7th we had visited in 11 days!). As a result I was somewhat doubtful both whether it would have preserved much worth seeing and whether it could really offer anything new. On both counts I was pleasantly surprised.

The compact central area (50 blocks or so) is well preserved and conveys a distinctive impression which sets it apart from other Mexican cities. This is partly due to a significant external use of “azulejo” tiles which have traditionally been made in the region (photo 1). Most of the buildings are 19th century but with reasonably large numbers from the 17th/18th Centuries too – with the later ones managing to maintain the overall feeling of “grandeur”.

Now we were getting pretty “churched out” on our trip and Puebla’s enormous Cathedral seemed, to our taste, rather oppressive in atmosphere and mawkish in iconography. However, when we moved on the 4 blocks to the Rosary Chapel we were just “blown away” by its magnificence. Nowhere before have I ever seen so much decoration so tightly fitted in to such a large area as the walls and ceiling of this chapel (photo 2). It is of course totally OTT, but this ultimate in “Baroqueness” should definitely be seen. In my view this building alone justified our visit to Puebla!

One of the “great sights” of Puebla, often portrayed in photos, is the view of Popocatapetl from there – so we got ourselves up a 6.30 am and drove up to the “Fuerte” (Fort) where the best view is achievable but Popo’ wasn’t obliging that morning! Luckily we had excellent views 2 days later from the (rather closer) town of Amecameca!

It is interesting to read the ICOMOS evaluation for Puebla. I was surprised to discover that the original proposal was to inscribe it “in tandem” with nearby Cholula – which is built on a pre-Hispanic town/pyramid. ICOMOS rejected the idea (but in the same year accepted the joint proposal for Oaxaca/Monte Alban q.v.). However the UNESCO Web Site still describes the inscribed location as including the “municipalites de Puebla, San Pedro Cholula et San Andres Cholula”. But, since the inscribed size is 597ha and the buffer zone is 102ha, it doesn’t seem likely that anywhere in the Cholula municipalities, 12kms away, would be included.