The city itself was founded by the Spanish in 1531 and, rare for this area, was an entirely new foundation, preferred to the ancient sites of Cholula and Tlaxcala possibly because there the memories of indigenous power remained too strong. It rapidly assumed great importance as a staging point on the journey from the capital to the port at Veracruz and for the trans-shipment of goods from Spain's Far Eastern colonies, which were delivered to Acapulco and transported across Mexico from there. Wealth was brought, too, by the reputation of its ceramic and tile manufacture (still very much in evidence), which was due in part to the abundance of good clays and in part to its settlement by Spaniards from Talavera who brought traditional ceramic skills with them. The city did well out of colonial rule, and perhaps not surprisingly it took the wrong side in the War of Independence. As a result, it preserves a reputation for conservatism and traditional values, not dispelled even by the fact that the start of the Revolution is generally dated from the assassination of Aquiles SerdA?n in his Puebla home.

Military defeat, too, seems to play an even larger part in Puebla's history than it does in most of Mexico - the city fell to the Americans in 1847 and to the French in 1863 - but what's remembered is the greatest victory in the country's history, when a force of some two thousand Mexicans defeated a French army three times its size in 1872. To this day, May 5 ( Cinco de Mayo ) is commemorated with a massive fiesta here, and with a public holiday throughout the country.