[2] The city was founded in 1531 in an area called Cuetlaxcoapan, which means "where serpents change their skin", between two of the main indigenous settlements at the time, Tlaxcala and Cholula.

[4] Due to its history and architectural styles ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque, the city was named a World Heritage Site in 1987.

The city also excels in industry, having the world's largest Volkswagen factory outside Germany, located in the Municipality of Cuautlancingo and an Audi plant in San José Chiapa.

[7] Some historians consider that the area where the city is located nowadays was not inhabited in the Pre-Columbian era, except in the 15th century, when this valley was set aside for use for the so-called Flower wars among the populations of Itzocan, Tepeaca, Huejotzingo, Texmelucan and Tlaxcala, with those soldiers captured being used as sacrifice victims.

The Spanish Crown supported the founding of Puebla as a city without encomiendas, as this system was being abused and a number of Spaniards were finding themselves landless.

[8] Commercial activity was dislodged from the main plaza completely by the early 19th century and placed in the San Francisco Parian market.

The American garrison was besieged in the city from 14 September – 12 October 1847 by the irregular forces of General Joaquín Rea and later reinforced by Antonio López de Santa Anna.

The siege was broken by the force of General Joseph Lane that fought its way from Veracruz into the city after defeating Santa Ana in the Battle of Huamantla on 9 October 1847.

[17] Most of the municipality has been deforested, including the lower portions of the Malinche volcano and all the Sierra de Amozoc, due to logging and seasonal farming.

Due to the proximity to the Popocatépetl, Puebla is sometimes exposed to the ash and dust that emanate from the volcano during its active periods, the most recent occurring on 19 May 2023.

[5] The historical and cultural value of Puebla's architecture is a major reason the city was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[24] The historic centre is filled with churches, monasteries, mansions and the like, mostly done in gray cantera stone, red brick and decorated with multicolored tiles.

[26] In spite of the many shopping malls that exist in Puebla today, the Zócalo, the main square, remains the cultural, political and religious center of the city.

The museum has fourteen exhibition halls with pottery, steles and sculptures from the Zapotec, Huasteca, Maya, Olmec and Aztec cultures as well as fine furniture and religious objects from the colonial period and examples of contemporary art.

The Library was named a Historic Monument of Mexico (Monumento Histórico de México) and UNESCO has made it a world heritage site.

In the first half of the 18th century, the hospital ceased to be under the direct control of the cathedral, passing to the monks of the order of San Juan de Dios.

[42] The Museum Workshop of Erasto Cortés Juárez was the home of one of the major figures in fine and graphic arts in Puebla in the 20th century.

[43] Puebla Cathedral, located on 16 de Septiembre and 5 Oriente, took 300 years to complete, in part due to interruptions in its construction.

Inside is a Plateresque choir, Neoclassic altarpieces and the mummified body of the beatified, and soon to be canonized as a saint, Sebastian de Aparicio.

The façade is made of gray cantera stone in Renaissance style, using Ionic columns and pediments, differing from the other buildings that border the main plaza.

The monument was sculpted by Jesús Corro Ferrer, who portaraited the China Poblana using the image of his own wife - María del Consuelo López y Martínez.

The first states that 16th century nuns from the Convent of Santa Rosa were worried because they had just found out that the archbishop was going to visit them and they had nothing to prepare for him except for an old turkey in the yard.

[50] Many food writers and gourmets nowadays consider one particular dish, the famous turkey in mole poblano, which contains chocolate, to represent the pinnacle of the Mexican cooking tradition.

The story begins with three sisters from Puebla who met officers from Agustin de Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees in Mexico City and fell in love with them.

The dish, chiles en nogada, represents the colors of the Mexican flag, green (parsley), white (the walnut sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds).

In the early 20th century, the bread began to be served sliced with a filling of leftovers, generally potatoes, beans, nopal, beef, chicken or pork.

During the same time period, it became traditional to sprinkle sesame seeds onto the cemita bread, often with designs of flowers, stars, animals and other things.

[53] According to colonial-era published sources, a young Indian woman named Mirra was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates and taken to Cochin (modern-day Kochi), in the south of India.

Puebla, through the conurbated area of Cholula, has one college American football team, the "Aztecas" of the Universidad de las Américas.

Crops raised include corn, beans, wheat, oats, avocados, pears, apples, peaches, choke cherries, Mexican hawthorns, nuts and white sapotes.