Teoloyucan is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It's municipal seat and second largest city is the city of Teoloyucan. It lies 45 km (28 mi) north of the Federal District (Distrito Federal) in the northeastern part of the state of México, and is part of the

Greater Mexico City Greater Mexico City is the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of Mexico, municipalities of the State of Mexico and Hi ...

urban area. During the colonial period the area's name had a number of variations, including Teohuilloyocan, Teohuilloyucan, Theoloyucan, Teoloyucan Coaquileque and Tehuilloyocan. The name comes from

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

meaning place of glass or place of crystal rock.

The city

According to the

Codex Mendoza The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codices, Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541. It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. ...

, the settlement is mentioned as

Itzcoatl Itzcoatl ( , "Obsidian Serpent", ) (c. 1380–1440) was the fourth king of Tenochtitlan, and the founder of the Aztec Empire, ruling from 1427 to 1440. Under Itzcoatl the Mexica of Tenochtitlan threw off the domination of the Tepanecs and esta ...

conquered this area, meaning it existed prior to 1436, probably owing its importance to its proximity to

Cuautitlán Cuautitlán (, Otomi: ), is a municipality in the State of Mexico, just north of the northern tip of the Federal District (Distrito Federal) within the Greater Mexico City urban area. The city of Cuautitlán is the municipal seat and makes up ...

. After the Spanish Conquest, in 1565, the area and its people were entrusted to Alonso de Ávila Alvarado. The

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

came a year later to evangelize. In 1570, the town was described as having four principal districts divided into 8 neighborhoods each, indicating the area was already well-organized with a population of over 1,000 people, half of whom were

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: ; singular ) are a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island ...

and the other half

Otomi The Otomi (; ) are an Indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region. The Otomi are an Indigenous people of the Americas who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguistically rel ...

. The population of the city as of 2010 was 63,115. The city has two notable churches from the 17th century, the Church of Santa Cruz and the Church of San Juan. There are also plans to establish the Museo Comunitario de Teoloyucan (Community Museum of Teoloyucan). The city's patron saint is San Antonio de Padua. The Magnetic Observatory of Teoloyucan was originally established in the School of Mining in Mexico City in the 18th century by Antonio Alzate and

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

. In 1903, it was moved to

Cuajimalpa Cuajimalpa de Morelos (; more commonly known simply as Cuajimalpa) is a Boroughs of Mexico City, borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It is located on the west side of the city in the Sierra de las Cruces mountains which separate ...

then again to its current location in 1911 due to the development of the

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

metropolitan area. It was originally located in the town's municipal palace but when this building was remodeled in 1978, the observatory again moved to its current location next to the municipal cemetery at the town's edge.

The municipality

As municipal seat, the city of Teoloyucan has governing jurisdiction over the following communities: Acolco, Analco, Atzacoalco, Axalpa, Cuaxoxoca, Colonia Agricola de Santo Tomas, Hacienda de San José Puente Grande, La Era, San Bartolo, San Sebastian, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz del Monte, Santa María Caliacac, Santiago, San Juan, Santo Tomas, Tepanquiahuac, Tlatenco, Tlatilco and Zimapan. The total population of the municipality in 2010 was 63,115. The municipality was created shortly after the end of the

Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...

in 1821 and in the same year as the creation of the State of Mexico in 1825. The

Teoloyucan Treaties The Teoloyucan Treaties were signed on August 13, 1914, at Teoloyucan, State of Mexico, Mexico between the revolutionary army and forces loyal to Victoriano Huerta. The Constitutionalist Army of First Chief Venustiano Carranza was represented by ...

were signed n this municipality during the Mexican revolution. The municipality borders with the municipalities of Coyotepec,

Zumpango Zumpango is a municipality located in the northeastern part of the state of Mexico in Zumpango Region. It lies directly north of Mexico City within the Greater Mexico City urban area. The municipal seat, Zumpango de Ocampo, lies near Lake Zumpango ...

Cuautitlán Izcalli Cuautitlán Izcalli () is a city and one of the 125 municipalities that make up the State of Mexico. Its municipal seat is Cuautitlán Izcalli. It is located in the Valley of Mexico area, and is part of the Metropolitan area of Mexico City. It ...

Melchor Ocampo Melchor Ocampo (4 January 1814 – 3 June 1861) was a Mexican lawyer, scientist, and politician. A zambo and a radical liberal, he was fiercely anticlerical, perhaps an atheist, and his early writings against the Catholic Church in Mexico gaine ...

Jaltenco Jaltenco is the municipality located in Zumpango Region, a small municipality in this region, covers an area of 4.7 km², this territory is in the northeastern part of the state of Mexico in Mexico. The municipal seat is San Andrés Jaltenc ...

Nextlalpan Nextlalpan is a municipality in the State of Mexico in Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 42.49 km². Its municipal seat is the town of Santa Ana Nextlalpan. As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 22,507. Politics ...

, and

Tepotzotlán Tepotzotlán () is a city and a municipality in the Mexico, Mexican state of Mexico. It is located northwest of Mexico City about a 45-minute drive along the Mexico City–Querétaro road at marker number 41. In Aztec times, the area was the c ...

. It has a territory of 31.52 km². While agriculture and raising livestock are still important economic activities, industrialization has begun in this area. Among the products manufactured are: packaged food, textiles, paper products, petroleum and plastic products, as well as machinery and metal parts.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the State of Mexico Municipalities of the State of Mexico