Key Facts

• Pronunciation: wa Ha ka
• Size: 85.48 km² (33 square miles) (municipality)
• Population: 258,008 (city), 500,978 (municipality) (2005 census)
• Location: 17 05 N 96 45 W

The city of Oaxaca (formally: Oaxaca de Juárez, in honor of 19th-century president and national hero Benito Juárez, who was born nearby) is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name.

It is located in the Valley of Oaxaca in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountains. The area is known as the three Valles Centrales (Central Valleys) region and is surrounded by forests of pine and oak. Monte Albán a dominating archaeological site, where the Zapotecs ruled for several hundred years is on the edge of the city. Oaxaca is nicknamed la Verde Antequera (the green Antequera) due to its prior name (Nueva Antequera) and the many structures built from a native green stone. It is the home of the Guelaguetza native arts and dance festival and the Night of the Radishes celebration.

Getting Oriented

At the center of the town is the Plaza de la Constitución, better known as the Zócalo. It was built by Juan Pelaez de Berrio and Alonso García Bravo around 1529 when they laid out the downtown, modeling it after Spanish cities of the time. The marble fountain were added in the 18th century.

Today, the Zócalo is the vibrant social center of the city. Musicians, mariachi bands and performers add to the relaxed but festive ambiance. Balloon sellers and roving merchants add color while families with children, locals and tourists gather, stroll, sit and socialize.

If you stand in the Zócalo and face the Catedral, you will be looking north. To the northwest is a slightly smaller plaza, the Alameda de León. The Zócalo is surrounded by several portales -- arch shaped openings in thick stone walls. On the south side is the Portales del Ex-Palacio de Gobierno, vacated by the government in 2005 and now the Museo del Palacio -- Palace Museum, currently closed. Restaurants with outside tables and shops fill the arched spaces. the streets adjacent to the plazas are closed to traffic. To the right of the Catedral, connecting to the Zócalo and leading north, is the Andador Macedonio Alcalá a walking street that passes the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Museum of Contemporary Art), the Plazuela Labastida and the Parroquia de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo (Parish of the Precious Blood of Christ). After four blocks it connects to the plaza in front of the Santa Domingo church and Museo de las Culturas. Continuing on for about 3 blocks and jogging left brings you to Los Arquitos de Xocimilco. From there, you can look up to the west and see the Guelaguetza auditorium on Cerro del Fortin.

Two blocks from the Zócalo in the other direction, south on Flores Magon, you'll encounter an entirely different experience. Sharing the street with traffic and crowds of people brings you to the bustling Mercado Benito Juárez and Mercado 20 de Noviembre.

Sights

Oaxaca is a colonial city, and Spanish churches are everywhere.

Churches and Religious Buildings

Catedral de Oaxaca

Catedral de Oaxaca. This dominant church is also referred to as The Cathedral of the Virgin of the Assumption. Located just off the Zócalo, this is the third to be built after fires and earthquakes in the 16th and 18th centuries destroyed the first two. Construction began in 1702 and was completed consecrated in 1733. Its Baroque façade is made of the quarried green stone commonly found in Oaxaca's buildings and includes a relief over the central door of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary with stylized clouds and cherubs. The interior was plundered during the Wars of the Reform so is less elaborate. It is Neoclassical with a bronze altar crafted in Italy during the Porfirio era that features a statue of Nuestra Señora de al Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption). A small chapel near the alter houses the one piece that survived when the first structure was destroyed by lightning-induced fire, the Crucifix of El Señor del Rayo (Our Lord of Lightning).

Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán (Church of Saint Dominic). The church is attached to its former cloisters which today house the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo. Founded as a Dominican convent, construction began in 1570. Despite damaging earthquakes in 1603-4, it was consecrated in 1608. The cloister was completed in 1619, damaged by an earthquake in 1660 and rebuilt in 1661. The nave, interior stucco and façade were completed during 1657-1675.

Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

In the center of the façade is a relief depicting Saints Hippolytus and Domninic holding a church, the symbol of the Dominican province of Oaxaca. The interior is one of the best examples of Baroque style in Mexico. The vault, nave and trancepts, choir vault and cupola are covered in gilded and polychrome stucco relief. An intricate family tree of Felix de Guzmán, father of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order, fills the ceiling of the lower choir.

The church is addorned with paintings and frescos that depict passages from the Old and New Testaments. The main alter is a reproduction of the original, covered in gold-leaf and constructed in 1959 by Oaxacan craftsmen. The Capilla del Rosario (Church of the Rosary), constructed in 1724-31 and connected to the main temple, is dedicated to the Virgen of the Rosary. The nave, vault and side walls are decorated with images that depict the mystery of the Rosary.

Ex Convento de Santa Catalina de Siena (Former convent of Saint Catalina). Construction began near the end of the 16th century and was completed in the 18th. The nuns were driven out by Juárez's reforms in 1862 and for a while it served as a city hall. Since 1976 it has been operated as a hotel -- currently the Hotel Camino Real. Its gardens and public rooms are open for viewing. Walk past the desk and make your way through the garden to the well-preserved laundry to get a glimpse into the lives in a convent. The hotel currently offers a weekly mini-guelaguetza with buffet dinner.

Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Church of Our Lady of Solitude) Constructed between 1682 and 1690 on a site where the Virgin is believed to have appeared, it is located four blocks west of the Catedral on Avenida Independencia. It is Baroque in style with a façade made of a reddish stone sculpted to look like a folding screen. In the back of the church is a small museum that exhibits votives, including Virgin's dresses, offerings and small paintings. The statue of the Virgin of Solitude wears a gold crown studded with precious stones placed in 1909.

Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesús (Church of the Company of Jesus). Located to the southwest of the Zócalo, it was built in the 16th century with Baroque entrances. The towers were destroyed by a series of earthquakes and never rebuilt. Inside the chapel is a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with a prayer written in Spanish, English, Náhuatl as well as twelve other languages native to the state of Oaxaca, incluing four dialects of Zapotec.

Other churches include, the Church of San Augustín, completed in 1722, the Templo y Exconvento de San Juan de Dios (Church and former monastery of St John of God), Oaxaca's oldest church still standing, completed in 1703 and the Church of San Felipe Neri.

Museums and the Arts

Santo Domingo Gallery Gallery

Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo. The largest museum in Oaxaca, occupying the former monastery buildings attached to Santo Domingo church, was beautifully restored in the 1990s to tell the story of Oaxacan life from pre-Columbian days to the present. The lower floor preserves much of the original vaulting and remnants of the original murals. Much of the Centro Cultural is occupied by the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca (Museum of Oaxacan Cultures). The fourteen rooms of the Museum are thematically arranged. The illustrate the hunter-gatherer groups that first entered the Valley, the development of the dominant city-state of Monte Albán, the Spanish Conquest and the Dominican period. Additional rooms are devoted to the diverse cultures of Oaxaca. Like the Spanish, current visitors are infatuated with gold and the highlight is Tesoros of Tomb 7, a collection of of gold, silver and semiprecious-stone offerings discovered by archelogist Alfonso Caso at Monte Álban. They make up the richest collection of of such artifacts of ancient Mexico found in one location.

The museum also contains the Biblioteca Fray Francisco de Burgoa (Friar Francisco de Burgoa Library) which holds over 23,000 titles written between 1484 and 1940. Many are on display, including the oldest Comentarios a la filosofía de Aristóteles by Juan Versor.

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca (Museum of Contemporary Art, or MACO). Housed in the Casa de Cortés, a beautiful colonial building, that actually dates from after the death of Hernán Cortés, this museum exhibits works by local and nationally known modern artists.

Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (Museum of Oaxacan Painters). Located north of the Alameda de León on Avenida Independencia in a former 18th century mansion, this museum is dedicated to local artists such as Rodolfo Morales whose work is on permanent display. It also featured exhibitions by Felipe Morales, Rodolfo Nieto, Alejandro Santiago and Francisco Toledo.

Display in the Rufino Tamayo Museum

Museo Arte Prehispánico de Rufino Tamayo (Rufino Tamayo Museum). Tamayo donated the collection, as well as the house that is now the museum to his home state of Oaxaca in 1974. It has a stunning collection of 1,150 pieces from different Mesoamerican periods, including Mayan steles, ceramic dogs from Colima and stone faces from the Gulf of Mexico coast. All were collected by the paintor himself. As befits an artist's collection, the works are arranged to show both their aesthetic and cultural values.

Museo Textil de Oaxaca (MTO), Textile Museum of Oaxaca. Opened in April, 2008 this museum is dedicated to restoring, preserving, exhibiting and studying Oaxacan, Mexican and world-wide textile arts and culture.

Instituto de Artes Gráficos de Oaxaca (Institute of Graphic Arts of Oaxaca). Located in a 17th-century colonial house, IAGO was founded by Francisco Toledo in 1988. Its library houses over 12,000 books about graphic arts. Changing exhibits include national and international contemporary artists.

Casa de Juárez. The residence of Benito Juárez from 1818 t0 1828, this house has been converted to a museum devoted to the life of Juárez. It contains documents related to his presidency as well as furnishings designed to recreate the environment of that period. Its architecture is typical of homes built in this city in the 18th century.

Other museums include Centro de Fotografía Álvarez Bravo, Museo Philatélica de Oaxaca (Stamp Museum), Railway Museum of Southern Mexico, in the former mainline railway station, Teatro Macedonio Alcalá, which as well as being a working theatre houses a collection of romantic art, and for something less artistic or historical, the Planetarium, on the Cerro del Fortín.

Shopping

Mercado Benito Juárez Located one block south of the Zócalo on Flores Magón and Las Casas, it takes up the entire block to 20 de Noviembre and Aldama streets. It offers flowers, fruit, ices, fruit drinks, handcrafts, leather goods, hats and knives, jewelry, consumer goods and almost anything else.

Mercado 20 de Noviembre is the official name, but this market is commonly known as the Mercado de la Comida (Food Market) because of the too-numerous-to-count food stands that dominate its crowded aisles. Oaxacan regional dishes include moles, tasajo, tlyudas, pan de yema (a type of egg bread), chapulines (roasted grasshoppers in chile), queso fresco (a type of cheese), quesillo as well as very large cups of hot locally-made chocolate spiced with cinnamon and almonds.

Mercado de Artesanías (Crafts market). A much quieter market devoted textiles.

Los Arquitos (former aqueduct). A small weekend organic market is worth the walk.

Green Space

Jardín Ethobotánico (Ethnobotanic Gardin). Created in 1993, in an open space at the Centro Cultura, this garden includes cacti, shrubs and other plans representing the biodiversity of different regions of Oaxaca. Entrance is with a staff guide only.

Parque Benito Juárez

Cerro de Fortín. Overlooking the highway that enters the city from Mexico City, and bearing in stone letters Benito Juárez's slogan, "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" (Respect for others' rights is peace), this park offers views of the city and surrounding valleys.

Parque Comunal de San Felipe. Bordering the city and accessed via the suburb of San Felipe del Agua, this park includes the 3250-meter high Cerro La Peña.

Weather

Monthly Temperatures (C)

Month           Jan    Feb    Mar    Apr    May    Jun    Jul    Aug    Sep    Oct    Nov    Dec
Normal Minimum  9.0   10.2   12.7   14.7   15.8   15.9   15.1   14.9   15.1   13.7   11.5    9.7
Average        18.2   19.7   22.5   24.2   24.5   23.0   22.1   21.9   21.7   21.0   19.6   18.3
Normal Maximum 27.3   29.2   32.3   33.8   33.2   30.1   29.0   29.0   28.2   28.3   27.8   26.9

Monthly Rainfall

Month          Jan    Feb    Mar    Apr    May    Jun    Jul    Aug    Sep    Oct    Nov    Dec
Amount (mm)    1.9    7.0   15.8   45.3   91.0  172.1  119.9  116.7  149.5   49.0   13.2    4.1
Amount (in)    0.1    0.3    0.6    1.8    3.6    6.8    4.7    4.6    5.9    1.9    0.5    0.2
Days with rain 0.8    1.6    2.6    6.0   11.3   17.2   16.5   16.0   16.8    8.1    2.7    1.0

Source: Servicio Meterológico Nacional

Getting There and Around

Oaxaca-Xoxocotlan airport (IATA code OAX) is approximately 10 km south of the city center. Most flights are to Mexico City for onward connection, but there are also flights to Huatulco, Cancún, Tuxtla Gutierrez and Tijuana. Continental Airlines flights between Oaxaca and Houston have also been initiated.

The city has separate first class and second class bus stations, offering services to most places within the state of Oaxaca, including the coastal resorts of Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Ángel and Pinotepa Nacional, and also long-distance services to Puebla and Mexico City and other Mexican locations such as Veracruz.

There are several bus lines which run in the city. The largest is TUSUG, a cooperative company where the drivers own their own buses.

The major highways serving Oaxaca are Federal Highways 175 and 131, southwards to the Oaxacan coastal resorts; National Highways 190 and 125, southwest to Pinotepa Nacional; National Highways 190 and 130, to Mexico City; the autopista 150D/131D, offering a more rapid route to Mexico City; and National Highway 175 north to Veracruz, Veracruz.

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