PACHUCA

CULTURAL TOURISM IN SITES OF MINING HERITAGE

Pachuca "The Windy Beauty"

Pachuca

Its geography amazes us at the moment we arrive, the city is located at 2,425 meters above sea-level, it seems to flow between mountains and ravines; its weather goes from mild to cold, especially during the evenings when the wind that comes from la Rabia gully, runs over its narrow and winding streets to tell us the stories of a rich past. Located 94 kilometers (approximately an hour) from Mexico City, 154 kilometers from the city of Puebla, using the highway known as Arco Norte and 231 kilometers from Querétaro, Pachuca has freeways and direct bus service to the main cities of the country.

Pachuca smells like wind and mineral, the first Spaniard settlements were registered in 1534; eighteen years after mining activity started, and such activity lasted until the first years of the 21st century. Pachuca became famous not only due to its mines, but because Bartolomé de Medina improved in this place the patio processing or amalgamation system, in order to obtain silver from lower ore quality. These hundreds of years of exploitation and mineral processing, originated a mining industry culture: stories, legends, graphic and written documents, a gastronomy which is a mixture of the many cultures that have come to live in this places (there are several restaurant and food stands to enjoy it), and buildings with a particular beauty.

Some of the interesting sites that have to be visited are Las Cajas Reales, Las Cajas de San Rafael, today Historical Archive and Museum of Mining, Civil Association; la Casa Colorada (the Red House) which was the personal residence of the Second Count of Regla and today is Vicente Guerrero elementary school; the offices of Santa Gertrudis Mining Company located in front of Benito Juárez market and Loreto ore processing plant, all of them legacy of mining activity. If you have extra time, visit San Francisco church and former convent, the Rule House, and do not miss the opportunity to listen to the famous Clock bells while you enjoy a sunset in Plaza Independencia.