Mexico Guide
The Bajío
Real de Catorce
REAL DE CATORCE (or "Villa Real de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Guadalupe de los Alamos de los Catorce", to give it its full title), west of Matehuala, is quite an extraordinary place. With the hills around here once reckoned to be the second-richest source of precious metals in Mexico after Guanajuato, the main mines were founded in 1772, and at the height of its silver production early in the nineteenth century the town had 40,000 inhabitants. But by the turn of the twentieth century mining operations had slowed, and in 1905 they ceased entirely, leaving the population to drop to virtually zero over the next fifty-odd years. For a period, a few hundred inhabitants hung on in an enclave at the centre, surrounded by derelict, roofless mansions and, further out, crumbling foundations and the odd segment of wall. Over the past few decades, and particularly since the mid-1990s, though, an influx of artists, artesanía vendors, wealthy Mexicans and a few foreigners has given the town impetus to begin rebuilding. The centre has been restored and reoccupied to the extent that the "ghost-town" tag once liberally applied to the place is no longer entirely appropriate, and new buildings have even appeared on the outskirts. The population now stands at around 1200, the foreign contingent coexisting amiably with locals who increasingly depend on the tourist industry.
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