Bernal

History

Before the Spanish, the site was a Chichimeca settlement whose name, of Otomian origin, is translated as place of the crag. The present village was founded in the 1640s by Lieutenant Alonso Cabrera, who came from Cadereyta with the first settlers to build a post that would protect people in the area from raids by Pame and Chichimeca groups. The spot was chosen because it was high and easy to defend. For much of the 17th and 18th centuries Bernal marked the southern edge of the Gran Chichimeca, the vast northern territory where Chichimecas, Pames, and Jonaces resisted colonization.

The first building was a barracks, later replaced by a more solid presidio and then by the government house known as the Casas Reales. Settlers followed the soldiers, and most of the colonial houses visible today went up in this period. In 1725 Bernal received the rank of congregation as San Sebastián Bernal, and the three-nave church of San Sebastián, begun in 1700, was completed. The Chapel of the Ánimas dates from the 18th century.

In the 19th century Bernal headed its own municipality, which was dissolved around 1921 and absorbed by Cadereyta; today the village belongs to Ezequiel Montes. Crafts and tourism now sustain it, and in 2005 it became one of the early Pueblos Mágicos.