Боске-де-Чапультепек: История и современность парка в Мехико

Urban park in Mexico City
the city park

Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is as an ecological space in Greater Mexico City. It is considered the first and most important of Mexico City's "lungs". The area encompassing modern day Chapultepec has been inhabited and considered a landmark since the pre Columbian era, when it became a retreat for Aztec rulers. In the colonial period, Chapultepec Castle was built here, eventually becoming the official residence of Mexico's heads of state. It would remain so until 1934, when Los Pinos, in another area of the park, became the presidential residence. Bosque de Chapultepec is divided into four sections, with the first section being the oldest and most visited. This section contains most of the park's attractions, including the castle, the Chapultepec Zoo, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum, among others. It receives an estimated 15 million visitors per year. This prompted the need for major rehabilitation efforts that began in 2005 and ended in 2010. The government has authorized the construction of business, offices, and big parking lots for cars.

According to studies, there has been human presence in the area since at least the pre Classic period. The first identified culture archaeologists have evidence for is the Toltecs. The Toltecs named the area "grasshopper hill", which would later become Nahuatl "Chapoltepēc" ("at the grasshopper hill"). Remains of a Toltec altar have been found on the hill's summit. In the Classic Period, the area was occupied by people of the Teotihuacan culture. When the Mexicans, or Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico, it was inhabited by a people called the Tepanecas of Azcapotzalco.]] During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, one of the last battles between the Spanish and ruler Cuauhtémoc occurred at Chapultepec Hill in 1521. ]] After Mexico achieved independence in 1821, the Castle became the official residence of the head of state. A number of these, especially Emperor Maximilian I and his wife, embellished and expanded the castle as well as the forest area around it. The castle remained the official residence of Mexican presidents until 1940, when this function was moved to the Los Pinos residence, and the Castle was converted into a museum. In 2005, the first section of the park was closed for renovations, effectively evicting all vendors from the area. When it reopened months later, permits for selling were strictly limited, and police began to crack down on vendors in the park. However, some vendors continue to operate illegally and exchange information on the police's steps with radio communication equipment. At the entrances to the park, where the vendor restrictions are not in place, some vendors sometimes block the entrances and cover signs so that visitors are forced to pass through their stands. Maintenance issues have closed parts of the park from time to time. In 1985, the park was closed to exterminate rats and other pests. In 2010, projects included renovating jogging tracks, and planting more than 800 trees, including acacia café, pino azul, pino peñonero, holm oak, pino moctezuma, pino prieto and grevilia, as well as the removal of dead or severely infected trees. These rehabilitation efforts of the 2000s were funded by a combination of government and private funds from groups like Probosque. It is classed as one of the world's largest and most visited urban parks, along with Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo, and Central Park in New York City. The name "Chapultepec" means "at the grasshopper hill" in Nahuatl and refers to a large rock formation that is the center of the park's first section. Originally, this area was a forest outside of Tenochtitlan, once considered sacred in pre Columbian times, but today it is entirely within the city (mostly in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo), surrounded by some of its primary business and commercial districts. The park is divided into three sections, the first and oldest surrounded by fencing and closed at night, with the other two left open. It contains nine museums, amusement parks, winding paths, commemorative sculptures, lakes and fountains. It is a large unpaved area that allows for aquifer recharge, ameliorates the "heat island" effect, and attracts rain. The park received an estimated 15 million visitors each year, and daily visits exceed 250,000. Sunday is the most popular day to visit because the museums are free, and visitors may spend the entire day in one or more sections viewing the attractions, picnicking, or grilling. These fences mostly separate it from the streets that form its boundaries: Avenida Constituyentes (es), Paseo de la Reforma, Calzada Chivatito, and the Anillo Periférico. The interior measures , with of this being undeveloped green space. The pathway also has trees that are hundreds of years old. After the Conquest, a small chapel dedicated to the Archangel Michael was built on the hill by Claudio de Arciniega in the middle of the 16th century. The Chapultepec Zoo is the most visited attraction of the park, especially on Sundays. It is estimated that half of all park visitors come to the zoo. The zoo was established by Alfonso L. Herrera, a biologist, and opened in 1924. Today, it has 16,000 animals of 270 species, separated into four sections according to habitat: tropical forest, temperate forest, desert, and grassland. About one third of the animals are native to Mexico. The area contains jogging trails, places for yoga and karate, and other exercise facilities on the tree areas. Around 1,000 people each day go to this section to exercise. The jogging trails were doubled from 2 km to 4 km in the late 2000s. One part of this section was dominated by the Feria de Chapultepec amusement park, located near the Lago Mayor, just off the Anillo Periférico. The park had a capacity of 15,000 people and was visited by about two million each year. It includes several roller coasters, including the Quimera. The park closed in 2019 after a fatal incident on Quimera. The park will be replaced by Atzlan Parque Urbana, a more verdant park with a larger focus on live entertainment and themed to Mexico City's neighborhood. It will feature a few rides and is expected to open in the next few years. This section contains museums such as Papalote Museo del Niño and the Museo de Historia Natural (es). El Papalote Museo del Niño is an interactive children's museum which invites children to touch and manipulate the exhibits. The Cárcamo de Dolores hydraulic structure, found in this section, was built between 1942 and 1952 to capture water sent to the Valley of Mexico from the Lerma River basin in the Toluca Valley. The major parts open to the public consist of a pavilion, covered with an orange half cupola and a fountain with an image of Tlaloc. Originally, the water was stored underground and pumped to the surface when needed. The main building has serpent heads on the four corners and there is a mural painted by Diego Rivera called El agua: origen de la vida.

The fourth section is the westernmost zone and it was inaugurated in 2021. It has a surface of 74 hectares. It was donated by the SEDENA.