Mexicans call their ghost towns pueblos fantasmas, and Mineral de Pozos — about 185 miles northwest of Mexico City and 40 miles northeast of San Miguel de Allende — is one of them, a relic from the great Mexican mining boom of the late 19th century.
But Pozos isn’t dead. It’s slowly growing, its ghosts joined by perhaps 3,500 residents who have begun filling the reclaimed ruins with contemporary art and pre-Hispanic music. The town has three hotels, eight to 10 art galleries (depending on how you count them) and perhaps 50 Americans, many of them artists, who live here at least part time.
Despite its ghostly reputation, Mineral de Pozos is nowadays a town bursting with life that pays homage to its mining past, rich in veins of gold and silver. The legends that belong to this town are whispered in the bowels of its tunnels, a town which has twice been abandoned by its inhabitants in the past. Gaze at its buildings erected in the middle of the semi-desert landscape of Guanajuato, with the white dome of the Parroquia de San Pedro and Jardin Juarez (Juarez Garden). Let yourself be taken in by its boutiques, handicraft galleries and shops, and jewellery design.
How to get there
From Queretaro take Federal Highway 57. 60 kilometers ahead you’ll get on State Highway 46 towards San Luis de la Paz. This road passes through Mineral de Pozos. From San Miguel de Allende take State Highway 1 northeast. You’ll cross Federal Highway 57 and continue to the junction to State Highway 46. From there head north along 46 to Mineral de Pozos. Distance chart: To Queretaro – 80 km: To Mexico City – 280 km: To San Miguel de Allende – 60 km
Essentials
- Visiting the mining area where we specifically recommend San Rafael. There you’ll learn a little but about the region’s mining past from the 16th to 19th centuries.
- Wandering about the town’s art galleries and observing the works of their painters, sculptors, and photographers.
- Walking by the Juarez Garden and perusing the shops and stores there.
- Getting to know the town’s religious art.
Festivities
- El Viacrucis (Stations of the Cross) during Holy Week.
- The Mariachi Festival in May.
- The Blues Festival and Toltequidad (Toltec) Festival in July.
Sources: Chicago Tribune , Visit Mexico