Metztitlán

History

Before the Spanish arrived, Metztitlán was the center of an independent lordship in the sierra that the Mexica never managed to conquer.

Augustinian friars reached the area early in the colonial period. According to tradition they began a first monastery, known as La Comunidad, in 1537, which makes it one of the order's earliest foundations in what is now Hidalgo. A flood on the river plain in 1539 led them to abandon it and start again on higher ground, where they built the monastery of the Santos Reyes over the rest of the 16th century. The old Comunidad building survives and now houses municipal offices and a clock tower.

From the same century comes La Tercena, one of the few examples of 16th-century civic architecture left in Mexico. It mixes indigenous and European elements, including a portico with carved columns and an eagle-head gargoyle of pre-Hispanic design. The canyon around the town was decreed a Biosphere Reserve on November 27, 2000, and Metztitlán was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2023.