Pachuca de Soto

City in central Mexico and administrative capital of the state of Hidalgo; population (1995) 220,500. It lies 100 km/62 mi by road northeast of Mexico City. Much of the town centre is pedestrianized, and modern buildings predominate, for example the theatre and the Bank of Hidalgo. Pachuca de Soto is one of the oldest silver-mining centres in Mexico.

Features The city was founded in 1534 and was one of the first settlements in New Spain; buildings of the Spanish colonial period include Las Cajas (1670); Las Casas Coloradas (1785), now the courts of justice; and a former Franciscan convent (1596).

The Aztecs were mining in the Pachuca area before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, and the hills around the town are full of old mine workings, for example Real del Monte, where Cornish miners settled in the 19th century. Silver mining is still one of the main economic activities at Real del Monte. Obsidian, a form of volcanic rock chemically similar to granite, used to be mined in the area in pre-Hispanic periods.