Visit Chihuahua, Mexico

The city of Chihuahua is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua with a population of around 878,000. The name itself is older than the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

The city was founded on 12 October, 1709 and it was in Chihuahua where Miguel Hidalgo, considered the Father of the Country, was held prisoner in the Federal Palace of Chihuahua and executed in 1811 at the nearby Government Palace by the Spaniards. During the Mexican Revolution (1910 to 1917), it became at times the operations base for the División del Norte, the army led by Pancho Villa.

Many sites and memories remain of the Revolutionary era; the most important of these is the Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution at Villa's former estate house near downtown Chihuahua. La Quinta Luz was turned into a museum by his widow, Sra. María Luz Corral de Villa, and is now managed by the federal government.

The city offers a few places of interest for the traveller, especially for those keen on history. These include the baroque Metropolitan Cathedral, seat of the Archdiocese (and the resting place of St Peter of Jesus Maldonado, a Cristero martyr of the 1930s), dating from the 18th century, the Government Palace from the early 19th century, and the City Hall from the turn of the 20th century, on the Plaza de Armas across from the Cathedral.