Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
(8633); La Luz (8318), in a rich mining district; Penjamo (8262); Santa
Cruz (7239); San Francisco del Rincon (10,904), 39 m. W. of Guanajuato
in a rich mining district; and Acambaro (8345), a prosperous town of the
plain, 76 m. S.S.E. of Guanajuato.
GUANAJUATO, or SANTA FE DE GUANAJUATO, a city of Mexico and capital of
the above state, 155 m. (direct) N.W. of the Federal capital, on a small
tributary of the Rio Grande de Lerma or Santiago. Pop. (1895) 39,404;
(1900) 41,486. The city is built in the Canada de Marfil at the junction
of three ravines about 6500 ft. above the sea, and its narrow, tortuous
streets rise steeply as they follow the ravines upward to the mining
villages clustered about the opening of the mines in the hillsides.
Guanajuato is sometimes described as a collection of mining villages;
but in addition there is the central city with its crowded winding
streets, its substantial old Spanish buildings, its fifty ore-crushing
mills and busy factories and its bustling commercial life. Enclosing the
city are the steep, barren mountain sides honeycombed with mines. The
climate is semi-tropical and is considered healthy. The noteworthy
public buildings and institutions are an interesting old Jesuit church
with arches of pink stone and delicate carving, eight monasteries, the
government palace, a mint dating from 1812, a national college, the fine
Teatro Juarez, and the Pantheon, or public cemetery, with catacombs
below. The Alhondiga de Granaditas, originally a public granary, was
used as a fort during the War of Independence, and is celebrated as the
scene of the first battle (1810) in that long struggle. Among the
manufactures are cottons, prints, soaps, chemicals, pottery and
silverware, but mining is the principal interest and occupation of the
population. The silver mines of the vicinity were long considered the
richest in Mexico, the celebrated Veta Madre (mother lode) even being
described as the richest in the world; and Guanajuato has the largest
reduction works in Mexico. The railway outlet for the city consists of a
short branch of the Mexican Central, which joins the trunk line at
Silao. Guanajuato was founded in 1554. It attained the dignity of a city
in 1741. It was celebrated for its vigorous resistance to the invaders
at the time of the Spanish conquest, and was repeatedly sacked during
that war.
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