Huaxtepec

Huaxtepec, later called Oaxtepec, lies in the warm valleys south of the Basin of Mexico. It was renowned for a splendid garden associated with the Mexica ruler Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. Water flowed through grounds filled with trees, fragrant flowers and useful plants, bringing together species from different parts of the realm. The gardens made the town a celebrated place of pleasure and healing.

Hernán Cortés described the extensive garden in a letter to the Spanish king in 1522, admiring its water, fruit trees and fresh shaded places. Later in the sixteenth century Bernardino Álvarez founded the Hospital of Santa Cruz at Oaxtepec. The surviving garden supplied medicinal plants to the hospital, continuing a local tradition of knowledge about herbs even as the site acquired a new purpose under colonial rule.