Noche Triste

On the night of June 30, 1520, the Spaniards and their allies fled Tenochtitlan after the death of Moctezuma, suffering heavy losses on the causeways over the lake as the Mexica attacked. Tradition says Cortés wept under an ahuehuete tree in Popotla, remembered as the Tree of the Sad Night.

It was the worst Spanish defeat of the Conquest; Cortés regrouped, won the Battle of Otumba days later, and took Tenochtitlan in 1521. In recent years Mexico City has also referred to the episode as the “Noche Victoriosa”, seen from the Mexica side.