Chapultepec station
Metro · 1 Line 1
Neighbouring stations
- 1Line 1Juanacatlán Chapultepec Sevilla
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The story behind the icon
The station silhouette represents a grasshopper.
Chapultepec means in Nahuatl "hill of the grasshopper". The pronunciation has remained almost the same as in Nahuatl, since only the stress changed: in Spanish it is stressed on the last syllable, while in Nahuatl the stress falls on the second to last.
This woodland was considered a sacred place by the Aztecs. Nezahualcóyotl, king of Texcoco, built in 1428 a mansion at the foot of the hill that helped enrich its flora with ahuehuete cypresses and multiplied its fauna.
In 1465 Moctezuma II brought the water from the springs of the woodland to the city. In 1530 Charles V ruled that the woodland and the hill should belong to Mexico City as a place of recreation for its inhabitants. In 1620 an aqueduct was built carrying the water as far as the Salto del Agua fountain.
Where the Aztec buildings had stood, a country retreat for the viceroys was developed, the works beginning in 1784 under Matías Gálvez.
In 1842 the Military College was moved to the castle, which was defended by the cadets during the North American invasion in 1847. The Castle stood abandoned for several years until President Miguel Miramón reinstalled the Military College in 1858. In 1864 Maximilian abolished the school and undertook various works to turn the eastern wing into his residence.
President Porfirio Díaz improved the building and restored the western part to reinstall the College, and President Venustiano Carranza enlarged the woodland in 1919.
From 1934 onward presidents no longer made the castle their residence, so it was given over to the National Museum of Mexico. Today the woodland consists of three sections.