<P> Nobles in New Spain had to continually reinforce their devotion to both God and king . To show their piety, most nobles donated temporal goods to the Roman Catholic Church, by building churches, funding missionary activities and charities . Sometimes nobles would also hold religious office or give one or more children (usually daughters) to a religious vocation but this was relatively rare . Demonstrating loyalty to king meant paying taxes to maintain their titles, sometimes purchasing military rank as well . </P> <P> Their last duty was to maintain a certain show of luxury . It was not a case of "keeping up with the Jones"', but rather a requirement of the position . Families that could not keep up a certain level of luxury were scolded by royal officers as not honoring their title . Such conspicuous consumption manifested itself in dress, jewels, furniture and especially in the building of mansions and palaces . </P> <P> The pressure to build the most opulent residence possible reached its height in the last half of the 18th century . Nobles leveled old buildings, using their Aztec stones and Spanish bricks to build more fashionable Baroque and Neo classic style mansions . Many of the most costly were on what was called San Francisco street (now Madero street) and near the Alameda Central . Near the Alameda were the homes of the Marquis of Guardiola, of the Borda family and the house of the Marquis of Prado Alegre as well as the home of the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba who covered the entire façade with talavera tiles from Puebla . On San Francisco Street, the most famous house was that of the Marquis of Jaral . It was a former convent that the marquis converted into a replica of the royal palace of Palermo for his daughter and her Sicilian husband . Later it was the home of Felix Calleja and then Agustín de Iturbide, who accepted the crown of Mexico from its balcony . Today it is known as the Palace of Iturbide . </P> <P> Most of these palaces still remain in the city center . Their abundance led Charles Joseph Latrobe, a man of high standing in Australia, to name Mexico City the "city of palaces" in his book "The rambler in Mexico ." This moniker is often erroneously attributed to the famous scientist and savant Alexander von Humboldt, who traveled extensively through New Spain and wrote The Political Essay of the Kingdom of New Spain, published in 1804 . </P>

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