Huamantla, Tlaxcala

Huamantla
municipal seat
Monument to the Bull
Location of the municipality in Tlaxcala.
Coordinates: 19°18′48″N 97°55′22″W / 19.31333°N 97.92278°W / 19.31333; -97.92278
Country	Mexico
State	Tlaxcala
Government
• Municipal president	José Alejandro Aguilar López
Time zone	Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	Central Daylight Time (UTC-5)
Website	Official website

Huamantla(Spanish  [wama'ntla] ) is a small city in Huamantla Municipality located in the eastern half of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. The area has a long indigenous history, but the city itself was not founded until the early colonial period, in the 1530s. It is mostly agricultural but it is best known for its annual homage to an image of the Virgin Mary called Our Lady of Charity. This includes a month of festivities, the best known of which are the “night no one sleeps” when residents create six km of “carpets” on the streets made from colored sawdust, flowers and other materials. The other is the “Huamantlada” a running of the bulls similar to that in Pamplona.

The city of Huamantla is in the east of the state of Tlaxcala, about 45 km from the state capital . The main entrance to the city is marked by the Monumento al Toro (Bull Monument), a bronze sculpture by architect Diódoro Rodríguez Anaya. It is dedicated to the regions’ bull raising and fighting tradition.

The city is centered on its main plaza, called Parque Juárez (Juarez Park), which contains gardens and a kiosk from the beginning of the 20th century. The blocks around it conserve many historic buildings from the colonial period up through the Porfirio Diáz era, with simple facades and iron-railed balconies. For this reason and the celebrations related to Our Lady of Charity in August, the city has been named a “Pueblo Mágico.”

The main colonial era constructions are the parish of San Luis Obispo and the former monastery of the same name, both of which were begun in the 16th century and named after Huamantla’s patron saint, Louis of Toulouse . The monastery complex was built between 1567 and 1585 and has a number of elements, focused on a main church with a simple facade. Above the door there is a niche containing an image of Saint Anthony and on either side of this, there are the coats of arms of the order. The bell tower has two levels and Solomonic columns. Inside the church, there is a chapel dedicated to a Christ figure called the Señor del Desposo. The main altar of this church is Churrigueresque with Neoclassical altars on the sides. To the side, there is a large open chapel with five arches supported by Tuscan columns with Doric capitals. The cloister area has been remodeled various times but original elements such as Tuscan columns remain. The Third Order chapel contains the complexes oldest oil paintings and a Baroque main altar.