Tecozautla

History

The name comes from Nahuatl words for stone, yellow and place, and is read as 'place where yellow earth abounds'. Local tradition holds that migrants settled here after the Toltec state broke apart and, fearing attack, built a defensive wall five to six meters high and several kilometers long. The wall is said to have protected them when Chichimec groups attacked.

In the 16th century the Franciscan friar Juan de Sanabria arrived to evangelize and founded the first convent. One of the first Spaniards to take control of land here was Nicolás Montaño, cacique of Jilotepec. The friars are credited with reconciling the townspeople with the Chichimecas who lived on the south side, and the wall that had separated them was torn down as a sign of that peace.

The church and convent of Santiago Apóstol went up between 1690 and 1700. Under Porfirio Díaz the town built its monumental clock: the first stone was laid on September 15, 1904, and it was inaugurated on September 15, 1910, the same day as the one in Pachuca. Tecozautla was named a Pueblo Mágico on September 26, 2015.