Mexico Home > Mineral del Monte - 2004
Mineral del Monte
Draped across pine-clad hills 14km north of Pachuca sits REAL DEL MONTE (aka Mineral del Monte), a formerly very wealthy silver-mining town high in the crisp clean air at over 2700m, which looks set to become a weekend retreat from the capital in the near future. There`s not a lot to do here, but it is a quietly appealing place to wander around the well-tended streets, and perhaps out into the hills all about to carefully explore mining relics.
The town`s architecture is largely Spanish colonial given an odd twist by the almost exclusive use of red corrugated-iron roofing, and the existence of Cornish-style cottages with their double-pitched rooflines. Some 350 Cornish miners moved here after 1824 when an English company operated mines first opened by the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth century.
Most left after the mining company pulled out in 1848, but the Cornish influence remained through surprisingly authentic Cornish pasties (known here as pastes) and the introduction of fútbol (soccer) which, tradition has it, was played for the first time on Mexican soil here in Real del Monte. There`s no monument to football, but the miners are commemorated with a large statue outside the small covered market, and the remains of some of them lie in the English cemetery on the edge of town.
Mineral del Monte
Draped across pine-clad hills 14km north of Pachuca sits REAL DEL MONTE (aka Mineral del Monte), a formerly very wealthy silver-mining town high in the crisp clean air at over 2700m, which looks set to become a weekend retreat from the capital in the near future. There`s not a lot to do here, but it is a quietly appealing place to wander around the well-tended streets, and perhaps out into the hills all about to carefully explore mining relics.
The town`s architecture is largely Spanish colonial given an odd twist by the almost exclusive use of red corrugated-iron roofing, and the existence of Cornish-style cottages with their double-pitched rooflines. Some 350 Cornish miners moved here after 1824 when an English company operated mines first opened by the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth century.
Most left after the mining company pulled out in 1848, but the Cornish influence remained through surprisingly authentic Cornish pasties (known here as pastes) and the introduction of fútbol (soccer) which, tradition has it, was played for the first time on Mexican soil here in Real del Monte. There`s no monument to football, but the miners are commemorated with a large statue outside the small covered market, and the remains of some of them lie in the English cemetery on the edge of town.
