Naolinco

History

Naolinco was a Totonac town long before the Spanish conquest. Around 1519 the Spanish described it as a town subject to the Mexica. The neighboring village of San Pablo Coapan was founded in 1526, and in 1532 a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in the area and was put down by Diego Marmolejo.

The colonial parish church, finished in 1798, survives as the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, attached to the present church. During the War of Independence the town formed its own independent governing junta in 1812, and in 1816 General Guadalupe Victoria set up his headquarters in nearby Tenampa to carry on the fight. The "de Victoria" in the city's name remembers him. A local man, Miguel Palacios Acosta, became governor of Veracruz for the 1850 to 1853 term.

Naolinco was raised to the rank of villa in 1881, and the kiosk that still stands in the park was inaugurated the following year. In 1910 it became a city under the name Naolinco de Victoria. In recent years the river has been recovered after a long period of pollution, and residents have worked to keep alive the traditional names of its waterfalls. Naolinco was named a Pueblo Mágico on June 26, 2023.