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Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes Mexico

Photography by Bill Bell

Aguascalientes was founded on 22 October 1575 by Juan de Montoro as a postal service rest stop between the city of Zacatecas and Mexico City. Although its founders did not envision it becoming a major city, it became the capital of the newly formed state of the same name when its territory was split off from the adjacent state of Zacatecas in 1835. When the state separated from Zacatecas, Aguascalientes raced ahead in its development, while the state of Zacatecas remained behind in comparison.

Aguascalientes was born out of four original neighborhoods. Guadalupe was where most travelers stayed on their way to the Mexico City, and has some of the most beautiful cemeteries in Mexico. Triana, named after a neighborhood in Seville, has the most Spanish influence in its architecture, and is the oldest neighborhood in the city. It is home to the Jose Guadalupe Posada museum and the magnificent Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. La Salud was intended to be a great conventual complex, but it was never completed; only the church, cemetery and square remain lined in colonial style stone streets. The San Marcos neighborhood is where the fabled San Marcos Fair has been celebrated for hundreds of years, and is notable for its neoclassical garden and baroque church.