Ex Teatro Hidalgo
One hundred and thirty seven miles of Chihuahua is the silver land where the city of Parral was founded. It is, without a doubt, the city with more personality and roots in the State.
It is the Chihuahuans ancestral home, the land of the disinherited heirs of northern Mexico’s richest mines, whose silver helped our State to develop.
In the summer of 1631, Juan Rangel de Biezma picked up a black stone, licked it and found silver. In front of him stood a mountain covered by similar pebbles. He had found “La Negrita”, a silver hill that gave birth to a town, baptized as Real de Minas de San Jose del Parral.
Silver kept flowing from Parral, so much, that they even thought of changing the bishopric from Durango. The governor for the New Biscayne did just that and, for over one century, Parral was the kingdom’s capital. Thousands of stories about this rich mining town were told; traces of all of them remain in the city’s archive, -the richest and most important in northern Mexico.
In 1833 Parral was raised to the category of Village; when Independence was declared, the locals decided that they wanted to be a part of Chihuahua and break off with Durango.
Everything and everyone has been by Parral: governors, rich miners, barbarian Indians, the French during the 19th Century, in 1865 Pedro Meoqui was killed here while defending the Republic against them. Later on came the Revolution and Parral was in the eye of the storm, due to Francisco Villa’s love for the city. He was killed in an ambush here in 1923. So many others have their place in the city’s history, but it would be impossible to mention them all.
It is a privilege to visit Parral: sharing the good Chihuahua’s men and women; coming in contact with manor houses, colonial churches and sculptures.
Pancho Villa Museum
This small museum is located in the exact spot where General Villa was ambushed, reason why this museum evolves around Francisco Villa’s death and the Revolution. It exhibits different objects pertaining to the Revolution in Chihuahua.
Former Hidalgo Theater City Library
Only the old walls belonged to the San Antonio Convent, but were used when building the Hidalgo Theater.
As early as 1632, before there was a parish, the Franciscan friars had built a hermitage in order to take care of the native that worked at the nearby mines and haciendas.
The theater was inaugurated in 1906 with the presentation of an Italian group who performed Giuseppe Verdi’s II Trovatore.
On November 14, 1928 the building caught fire and what was left was used as a freemason lodge. Nowadays, after having his facade restored, it houses the city’s public library.
Alvarado Palace
This is the only outstanding building that wasn’t constructed during the Colony; Don Pedro Alvarado, owner of “La Palmilla” mine, built it in 1894.
This quarry edifice, built by the French architect Federico Amerigo Rouvier, reflects in a clear way the European architectonic style then in vogue: a peculiar eclecticism, where we find different elements from different times.
The presence of Amerigo Rouvier was a great influence in Parral during the 19th Century; he also built the Casa Stalfforth, what is now known as the Hidalgo Hotel and the Griensen home.
The Alvarado’s moved into their ‘palace’ in 1903, while Italian painter Antonio Decanini finished decorating the central patio’s murals. The furniture, brought over from Europe, was as sumptuous as the house. The mine was very generous.
Governor Patricio Martinez recently bought this property and after a complete restoration, he turned it into a museum and cultural center. Today Parral has a new place to visit, a must do while in the vicinity.
Virgen del Rayo Temple
A plateresque, out of context, is what adorns the façade of Nuestra Señora del Rayo in Parral.
When the church was built next to the old hospital for the native -the first hospital built in town- it was dedicated to the Virgen de la Candelaria. When they took the Virgin’s image out in a procession praying for rain, in July of 1686, the skies opened and a storm broke loose near San Diego de Minas Nuevas. Lightning struck, pilgrims were thrown all over and the image’s face was forever marked.
Nobody died and Parral’s famine was over. Extremely thankful, the mineworkers changed the name to Nuestra Señora del Rayo. (Our Lady of Lightning) miracles continued.
San José Parish
Ever since his arrival from Santa Barbara in 1632, father Amaro Fernández Pasos, Parral’s first priest, he wished to build a quarry church where the old adobe one stood.
Portuguese architect Simon do Santos, proceeding from Zacatecas, was in charge of designing and building it; the foundation stone was laid in 1673 and the estimated cost would be 40 thousand pesos. In order to obtain this amount of money they asked for donations; Don Valerio Cortes del Rey promised that, for the rest of his life, he would monthly give the equivalent to 200 cows. He kept his promise until the church was finished in December 1686. The portal is apparently simple, but extends on to the sides, which are set with curved shapes and open up to the gable’s broken pediments. The side façade is very similar to the front one, except that the front niche holds a statue of Saint Joseph and the side one is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
The dome with no tambour makes this end of the 17th Century construction unique, as well as the colors used to paint the rhombus and the half spheres that finish off the buttresses. The two-body tower, with baroque side niches, is a counterbalance for the dull horizontal mass. Only six windows light up the inside: a rectangular area divided in 5 sections, a reminder of the 16th Century convent churches. It has a groined dome in front of the apse and, in the keystone of the presbytery’s main arch; you can read the date of when building started. Beneath the choir you can read the date when the church was finished, as well as the architect’s name.
This was a rich parish, with silver jewels, paintings and sculptures, according to what the inventories reveal. A fire occurred in 1881 burnt down the main altar, which covered completely the back wall and was considered “the best retable or altar piece in the New Biscayne”. Two lateral 17th Century retable make up the Forgiveness altar. Founder Juan Rangel de Biezma, governors from the colonial era and other illustrious locals are buried in the presbytery.
San Juan de Dios Temple
The ‘pardos’ or free mulatto, that had formed the Limpia Concepción society, asked permission, in 1680, to found a hospital “for the poor, where all of them shall be cured”. The foundation stone was laid in February 1682 and was finished in 1687. That year’s inventory mentions that it was built with adobe and mud; it also mentions the quarry doorframes and the carved beam and painted brick ceilings and the then unfinished adjoining tower. By the late 18th Century, the three retable where covered with gold. Only the cloister is left of the old hospital, which was cared for by the San Juan de Dios brothers. The church keeps the retable and a few paintings, since part of them were taken last century to the San Nicolás Tolentino temple, also in Parral.
