Current Time in Pachuca de Soto, Mexico

Pachuca de Soto is the capital of the state of Hidalgo in central Mexico, set in a narrow valley on the southern edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental about ninety kilometres north-east of Mexico City. At roughly two thousand four hundred metres above sea level it is a high, dry place, and the wind that funnels constantly through its ravines has given it the affectionate nickname La Bella Airosa, the beautiful windy city.

Close to three hundred thousand people live in Pachuca, with more than half a million in the wider metropolitan area, and the city continues to grow as commuters and businesses spread northwards out of the capital. Public administration, commerce, education and an expanding services and light manufacturing sector sustain the modern economy, but the identity of Pachuca was formed by silver. The mines of the district have been worked since the middle of the sixteenth century and were among the richest in the Spanish empire. It was here that the patio process for refining silver with mercury was developed, a technique that spread throughout the Americas.

Mining also brought an unusual foreign influence. In the 1820s British companies took over the workings, and Cornish miners settled in Pachuca and neighbouring Real del Monte. They brought their pasty, which became the local paste, a folded pastry filled with potato and meat or with sweet fillings and sold on street corners across the city. They also brought football, and the club founded here in 1901 is the oldest in Mexico. The city is home to the National Football Hall of Fame, a striking modern building shaped like a stadium.

The centre is dominated by the Reloj Monumental, a neoclassical clock tower of white stone raised in 1910 for the centenary of Mexican independence, with a carillon said to have come from the same workshop that built the bells of Big Ben. The former convent of San Francisco houses the National Photography Museum, which holds an extraordinary archive documenting Mexican history, alongside the Cuartel del Arte exhibition space. Other sights include the Mining Museum, the Bartolome de Medina walkway and the hillside district of Palmitas, whose houses were painted in bright colours as a vast community mural visible from across the valley.

Pachuca is an important educational centre, led by the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo, with technological institutes and a polytechnic university adding to a large student population. A cable car system, the Tuzobus rapid transit line and frequent coaches to Mexico City handle daily movement, while the surrounding region offers the mountain forests of El Chico National Park, the prismatic basalt columns of Santa Maria Regla and the old mining towns of the sierra.

Pachuca is valued for its mining heritage, its unusual blend of Cornish and Mexican traditions, and its role as the cultural and administrative heart of Hidalgo.