Mexicapan

Mexicapan is a quarter of steep cobbled streets on the northern slopes of the city of Zacatecas, a little over a kilometre from the cathedral. It is named after its first residents. The Mexica were the first Indigenous people to settle in Zacatecas after the silver veins were found, and their barrio, the city's first, grew up to the north, near the San Bernabé mines, the main stream and the Franciscan convent. Later, to the west, Tlaxcalan settlers formed Tlacuitlapan. Like the other Indian quarters, it sat on the edge of the Spanish centre, and its people worked in the mines and in the ore-processing haciendas of the north side, such as La Noria, La Pinta and Bracho.

Its treasure is the Mexicapan chapel, which the Franciscans built in 1569-1570 beside the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road between Zacatecas and Fresnillo. Its walls are rammed adobe faced with mine stone, the local building method, and it is the only Indian chapel still standing in the city. The Mexica dedicated it to the Assumption; today it is consecrated to the Virgin of Candelaria. It was altered in the 18th century, partly collapsed in 1939 and was abandoned; rescue work began in 1979, and canon José de Jesús López de Lara and Federico Sescosse completed its restoration in 1994. The atrium is closed by a stone wall topped with inverted arches.

The chapel belongs to the parish of Nuestro Padre Jesús, whose Templo de Jesús, a few blocks away, is the centre of the Holy Week processions. During that week the chapel holds a pulque fair meant to keep the customs of the barrio's founders alive, and Mexicapan is a place to find melcocha, Zacatecas' traditional pulled-sugar sweet.

Mexico's federal Tourism Secretariat (SECTUR) named Mexicapan a Barrio Mágico in June 2024, at the Tianguis Internacional de Pueblos Mágicos held in San Antonio, Texas; it is the first in Zacatecas.