Mineral del Chico

History

The town dates from 1565, thirteen years after the first news of mineral finds in the region. It was first called Atotonilco, and because it grew from mines discovered near Atotonilco el Grande it became Atotonilco el Chico to tell the two apart. When its veins proved valuable the name changed to Real del Chico. A first adobe chapel was built in 1569; after it was destroyed, the present parish church of the Purísima Concepción went up in 1725 and was remodeled in 1819.

After the War of Independence, anything that had belonged to the crown stopped being called "real", and in the political division of 1824 Real de Atotonilco el Chico became Mineral del Chico. It was made a municipality on January 16, 1869, one day after the decree that created the state of Hidalgo.

The late nineteenth century left the town two of its landmarks: the fountain, built in 1886, and the public clock that the engineer Gabriel Mancera donated in 1888, set on one side of the parish church on the main square. In the 1980s the state government built a tourist center called El Paraíso, with a restaurant, picnic shelters and a fishing area. Mineral del Chico was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2011.