Durango (city)

Durango, officially called Victoria de Durango, serves as the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Durango, as well as the seat of its municipality. As of the 2020 census, the city proper had 616,068 residents, with 688,697 living across the entire municipality. The city sits in the Valley of Guadiana. Its official name was changed in 1826 to honor Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico’s first president, who was born in the state.

The settlement was founded on July 8, 1563, by Spanish explorer Francisco de Ibarra. He named it after his hometown of Durango in the Basque province of Biscay, Spain, and called the surrounding region Nueva Vizcaya (New Biscay). During the colonial era, the city served as the capital of the Nueva Vizcaya province of New Spain, which covered what is now the Mexican states of Durango and Chihuahua. The site was chosen because of its proximity to Cerro del Mercado, a hill thought to hold silver deposits; instead, a major iron deposit was later discovered there.

Long before the Spanish arrived, the area was a corridor linking Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica. The first known inhabitants were the Nahoas, nomads who arrived from the north about 2,000 years ago. By the Post Classic period, the Zacatecans and Tepehuanos had moved in from the northwest.

The modern city began as a mining town, officially founded as Villa de Durango by Francisco de Ibarra. He had been sent north by Viceroy Luis de Velasco to conquer the territory and establish a settlement. The location was also chosen for its closeness to the Franciscan mission at Analco, which provided water, wood, and game. Alonso de Pacheco laid out the original town, bounded by what are now Madero and Constitución streets north–south, and 5 February and 20 November streets east–west. The historic center is centered on the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral Basilica.

Because of its distance from Mexico City, Durango and its surrounding communities developed with a fair amount of independence. It became a key stop on the route north for conquering northern Mexico and the Southwest U.S. The Jesuits worked as missionaries here from 1596 until their expulsion from New Spain in 1767, founding the Colegio de Guadiana, the main educational institution for northern Mexico during the colonial period.

The town became a parish in 1620 and was officially named a city on March 3, 1630. Hard times nearly led to its abandonment in the 17th century, with the provincial capital moving to Parral. But from 1680, the city began to grow again, as Parral’s mines played out and Spanish authorities reduced violence from native peoples. Durango regained its role as provincial capital on October 10, 1738.

The city reached its peak influence in the 18th century, thanks to mining in the nearby Sierra Madre Occidental. The resulting wealth funded the construction of many grand colonial buildings in the city center.

During the War of Independence, several figures—including Miguel Hidalgo—were executed in Durango on July 17, 1812, and buried at the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. In 1867, Benito Juárez stayed in the city while traveling north. Durango became an archdiocese on June 23, 1891.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city remained the political hub of the state and a regional commercial center for agricultural and handcrafted goods. Mayors focused on improving infrastructure—government buildings, hospitals, water supply, and streets—and the population grew.

In 1911, the city joined the Mexican Revolution under the Arrieta brothers. Domingo Arrieta captured the city, and soldiers under Victoriano Huerta rebelled against the government. The Revolution caused haciendas and factories to lose production. On June 18, 1913, insurgents took the city and burned businesses, leading to an economic depression that lasted decades. In 1917, Domingo Arrieta, loyal to Venustiano Carranza, became governor.

The destruction of the city center pushed development outward. The first neighborhood, Colonia Obrera, was established in 1918, breaking the city’s historical limits because it sat near an ice factory and the rail line. New colonias continued to appear in the 1930s along the rail lines, and efforts to regulate this growth lasted into the 1960s.

The population grew sharply in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly due to rural migration driven by droughts and expectations of industrial development. Urban sprawl expanded to 1,058 hectares.

Filmmaking in Durango began in 1898 with a clip titled *A Train Arriving in Durango*. Commercial filmmaking took off in the 1950s, and the city became known as a filming location for numerous Western movies.