Tlaxcala

Tlaxcala, a town of Mexico, capital of a state of the same name, on the Atoyac river, 58 m. E. of Mexico city by rail. Pop. (1900), 2715. It is of historic interest in connexion with the conquest of Mexico by Cortes. The state-house is its only fine edifice of a political character, and the old bishop's palace its finest building of a religious character. Of most historic interest, perhaps, is the church of San Francisco, the first erected on the American continent, which still contains the vestments, pulpit, font and cedar ceiling brought from Spain in 1521. The handsome sanctuary over the holy well of Ocotlan, on a hill outside the town, is one of the landmarks of the surrounding country.