Mexico’s Veracruz Seaport Declared Historic Monuments Zone

The seaport and the city of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico were declared a Historic Monuments Zone by presidential decree, an addition that raises to ten the number of historic sites protected by President Vicente Fox’s administration.

The decree bestows the selected site with all the protection the Mexican rule of law can provide in this case by adding the place to the list of assets protected by the Federal Act of Monuments and Archeological, Artistic and Historic Zones.

The declaration was based on the fact that the territory embracing the current settlement has evolved as a populated core for a number of years, even before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1518.

Founded on April 22, 1519 in the beach of Chalchihuecan and across from an islet now known as San Juan de Ulua, the city of Veracruz served as the first City Hall of New Spain in American mainland under the name of Villa Rica de la Veracruz.

During the viceroy’s rule, Veracruz was the most important trade seaport, a condition that gave settlers a good reason to build a magnificent defensive system made up of nine strongholds and a wall that was bricked in 1746.