Aztec Architecture
“The king, Moteuczoma,” Cortez wrote, “owns in Mexico such vast and wonderful mansions that I cannot give a better idea of them than by saying that their equals are not…
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From The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs by Lucien Biart, 1900.
A people who exercised its industry in works of luxury or curiosity could not neglect those which concerned its comfort. Consequently architecture, one of the arts which necessity imposes on man as soon as he leaves the state of barbarism, was known to the peoples of Anahuac from the time of the Toltecs. The Chichimecs, the Alcolhuas, the Tlaxcaltecs, — in a word, all the nations who occupied the provinces, with the exception of the Otomites, — built houses at an early date; and when the Aztecs arrived in Anahuac they found it covered with large and beautiful cities.
They themselves knew how to build, and were accustomed to social life; for during the long peregrination which led them to the shores of Lake Tezcoco, they erected a number of edifices at the places where they stopped. Nevertheless, the monuments which are found on the banks of the Gila river, in Pimeria, and near Zacatecas, which have been for a long time attributed to the Aztecs, are not their works. These remains, like those of Mistec and of Yucatan are, as we have seen, the work of more ancient peoples.
During the wretched years which they passed on the islands of Lake Tezcoco, the Aztecs contented themselves with humble cabins, with walls of reeds and of mud. But when, owing to the products of their fisheries, they were able to engage in commerce, they hastened to procure better materials. In proportion as their wealth increased, they attached more importance to their buildings, up to the time of the appearance of the Spaniards, who found much to admire, but, alas, much also to destroy.
The walls of the dwellings of the poor were made of bamboo and bricks dried in the sun, and sometimes of stones held together with clay. To cover their roofs the Aztecs used long weeds or agave-leaves placed one upon the other, like our tiles. One of the principal supports of these houses was often a tree of medium height, which, in addition to the shade it afforded, lessened the cost of construction. These houses had but one room, in which was the fireplace, the furniture, the utensils, and in which the family and domestic animals lived together. If the proprietor was in comfortable circumstances, two or three rooms, an oratory, a “temascalli,” and a granary were added to the house.
The dwellings of the nobles and of the wealthy people were built of stone. They had two stories, with the rooms well arranged; and the roof, made of timber-work, was flat and served for a terrace. The walls, whitened and carefully polished, shone in such a manner that the first Spaniards who arrived before Mexico believed they were of silver. The foundation of these houses was of masonry; sometimes they were crowned with battlements or towers. Generally they had a garden, and a pond supplied with running water.
The principal dwellings of Mexico had two entrances, one opening on the street, the other on the canal. These openings were without doors; the Mexicans regarded themselves as sufficiently protected against thieves by the severity of their laws. But to escape the curiosity of passers-by they covered these openings with curtains, to which they suspended an object which, sounding when they were raised, announced the presence of a visitor. When necessity, politeness, or the degree of kindred did not make it necessary to ask the person to come in, he was received simply on the threshold. It was not permitted to enter a house without the consent of the proprietor.
The Aztecs were familiar with the use of the arch, as is proved by their paintings, and better still by their baths, and the ruins of the palace of Tezcoco. They ornamented their edifices with cornices, and they frequently surrounded their doors with arabesque work. On the facade of some of the palaces we see a crawling serpent in the act of biting its tail, after having surrounded all the windows of the building with its coils. The walls which the Mexican masons built were straight and perpendicular, but we do not know what tools and what methods they used. It is believed that in their important constructions they supplied the use of scaffolding by heaping up earth by the side of the walls they were building. The Mistecs certainly employed this artifice; however, there is nothing to prove that it was used by the Mexicans.
The columns, with which they sustained their buildings were cylindrical, or square, without bases and without capitals. They always cut them from a single block, and ornamented them with bas-reliefs. In Mexico, owing to the soft character of the ground, piles of cedar were used as foundations for their edifices. Generally they borrowed the timbers for their roofs from the same family of trees, and the columns with the aid of which they supported them were of stone in the ordinary houses, and of alabaster or marble in the palaces. Until the reign of Ahuitzotl they used common stones; but having discovered near the lake quarries of a hard, porous, light substance, easily held together by mortar, they employed it exclusively. This stone, called “tetzontli” (porous amygdaloid), is still used by the modern Mexican architects. The pavement of the temples and palaces was composed of large slabs of different colored marbles.
Although Aztec architecture may not have given birth to wonders such as placed Europe in the first rank, the Spaniards certainly were so surprised by the beauty of the palaces of Mexico that Cortez, in his letters to Charles V., does not find expressions strong enough to praise them. “The king, Moteuczoma,” he wrote, “owns in Mexico such vast and wonderful mansions that I cannot give a better idea of them than by saying that their equals are not found in Spain.” The anonymous Conqueror shows the same admiration in his interesting work, as well as Bernal Diaz del Castillo in his history.
The Mexicans built many aqueducts for the convenience of the inhabitants of their cities. Those which brought the waters of Chapultepec to the capital, a distance of two miles, were of stone, and measured five feet in height and two feet in width. The water was brought to the gates of the city, and from there was taken to supply the fountains and ponds. There were two aqueducts, but only one was used at a time, for they were frequently cleaned in order that the water might always reach the city pure. At Tecutzinco, a country residence of the kings of Tezcoco, the aqueduct which carried the water to the palace may still be seen.
The double aqueduct of Chapultepec followed a route which, like the causeways built over the lake, is an irrefutable proof of the industry of the Mexicans. But the intelligence and knowledge of their architects shines most brilliantly in the city of Mexico, for they were compelled to make the land on which they were to build, by connecting many islands. Besides this task, they had to build dikes and walls in different parts of the valley, to protect the city from the inundations which threatened to destroy the city every year.
Some writers claim that the Aztecs did not know the use of lime; this assertion is disproved by their paintings, by the records, still existing, of the tributes which the provinces were required to pay, and better still, by a simple glance at the edifices they built, the ruins of which we still admire.
Biart, Lucien. The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs. Translated by John Leslie Garner, A.C. McClurg & Co, 1900.
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