Taximaroa

Taximaroa was a town in northeastern Michoacán, settled by Otomis before the Purépecha conquest. The Aztecs called it Tlaximaloyan, the place of carpenters.

The Purépecha conquered Taximaroa in 1401, making it a frontier town near the Aztec Empire. In 1479 the Aztec ruler Axayacatl burned it with an army of twenty-four thousand before being driven out; Moctezuma II's invasion of 1495 also failed. In 1522 Cristóbal de Olid took the town on the first Spanish entry into Purépecha lands and had the first Mass in that territory celebrated there.