Linares

History

The Villa de San Felipe de Linares was founded on April 10, 1712 by Sergeant Major Sebastián de Villegas Cumplido, who named it for the viceroy of the day, Fernando de Alencastre, Duke of Linares. The first site lay inside the lands of the Hualahuises mission, and the Gualagüis people there objected and pressed for the villa to be moved a league to the east. In 1715 the settlers took possession of the new location.

Linares grew quickly. With the colonization of Nuevo Santander, today's Tamaulipas, it became a strategic point for producing, gathering and moving goods and people toward the new lands, and in the 18th century it was the leading sugar cane producer in northern Mexico. The nearby Hacienda de Guadalupe, founded in 1667, still has the ruins of the aqueduct that fed its cane mill. In 1777 Linares was raised to the rank of city and made the seat of a new diocese, which turned it into the religious center of the region. The church of El Señor de la Misericordia, from 1788, is the oldest in town.

Most of the old houses in the center date from the early 20th century and are built of sillar, blocks of caliche quarried from the surrounding hills. Citrus groves and milk candy later gave Linares its modern identity. It was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2015.