Salvatierra

History

Pottery finds show the Huatzindeo valley was settled long before the Spanish. Chichimec groups founded communities here in the 12th century and were later conquered by the Purépecha, who gave the valley its name, meaning place of beautiful vegetation. Franciscan friars arrived in the 1500s and set up a mission and hospital, Spaniards established haciendas, and in the mid-16th century a group of indigenous people brought from Oaxaca settled the village of Chochones, across the river.

The valley's farmers gathered at San Andrés Chochones and in 1636 asked for permission to found a city. On February 9, 1644, Viceroy García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Count of Salvatierra, granted the title, and the new city of San Andrés de Salvatierra took his name. Wheat and water shaped it: three flour mills held water licenses from the early 1600s. The Carmelites founded a convent in 1644, and their architect friar Andrés de San Miguel built the Batanes Bridge over the Lerma in 1650. The church of Nuestra Señora de la Luz was begun in 1743 and the Capuchin convent was founded in 1778.

Hidalgo's insurgents occupied the town in October 1810, and in April 1813 Agustín de Iturbide defeated insurgent forces at the Batanes Bridge, a victory that won him promotion to colonel. Salvatierra has been a Pueblo Mágico since 2012.