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Aztec document goes on display in Mexico after 186 years abroad

Vanessa BuschschlüterLatin America online editor
News imageAPI/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images A photo of the one of the folios of the Codex Azcatitlán shows Aztec warriors defending the great pyramid a Tenochtitlan from Spanish conquistadors. One of the Aztec warriors is disguised as a bird and carries a shield. Another is falling down the steps of the pyramid after being hit in the leg by an arrow. Two men can be seen playing drums. API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Codex Azcatitlán tells the story of the Aztecs, including their battle to defend Tenochtitlán from the Spanish conquistadors

A centuries-old document telling the story of the Aztec civilisation and its fall after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in pictograms is going on display in Mexico for the first time in 186 years.

The manuscript, known as Codex Azcatitlán, has been held in France's Bibliothèque Nationale since 1898, but had already spent decades outside of Mexico before that.

It is thought to have been drawn in the 16th Century - a few years after the arrival of the conquistadors in what is now Mexico - and is widely considered one of the most valuable and insightful tellings of the history of the Aztecs.

France has lent Codex Azcatitlán to Mexico to mark 200 years of Franco-Mexican relations.

News imageDeAgostini/Getty Images A photo of one of the folios of the Codex Azcatitlán shows the arrival of Hernán Cortés. He is accompanied by men in armour who are carrying weapons and shields. Behind them are indigenous men carrying loads on their backs. The conquistadors are carrying a banner with an angel on it. DeAgostini/Getty Images
The arrival of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in what is now Mexico is among the scenes depicted in the Codex Azcatitlán

In return, Mexico has agreed to lend another priceless document, the Codex Boturini, to France for display there.

The pictograms in the Codex Boturini narrate the story of the migration of the Aztecs, also known as Mexica, from their ancestral homeland to the shores of Lake Texcoco, where they built Tenochtitlán.

The temporary exchange of the two codices was agreed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, during a visit by the latter to Mexico last year.

Mexico has long lobbied for the return of historical artefacts taken from the country in past centuries.

According to Mexico's ministry of foreign relations, last year more than 2,000 objects were successfully repatriated.

The Codex Azcatitlán will be exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City from Thursday.