El Rosario: A Legendary Mexican Town of Silver and Mystery

The history around this Magical Town El Rosario –located to 65 kilometers from Mazatlán, in the Sinaloa State– starts with a legend. It was the year of 1655 and the foreman Bonifacio Rojas lost a cow that he found later at the Santiago knoll. By the time he found it, it was already late at night and Rojas had to choose a place to make a bonfire to wait for the dawn. However, the next day Bonifacio Rojas was shocked when he saw that under the ashes there was melted silver.

 

For not losing the spot, while he was on his way to inform his boss, he left his rosary as a sign. The tale states that when he came back with more people, the men made a hole in the soil where they found an enormous mine of silver. It was in this way that the Tajo mine and the town of El Rosario suffered an enormous prosperity due to this finding.

 

Quite soon everyone knew about this and the town started to grow at the time the construction of tunnels allowed to extract big quantities not only of silver, but of gold. This way, this tiny spot quickly became the richest in the North of Mexico.

 

During this boom, the mines produced an extraordinary quantity of more than 400 grams of gold per kilo of extracted material. There were plenty of tunnels, in fact it is said that there were more tunnels under the earth than streets in the town.

 

As time went by, the tunnels of the mines weakened the foundations of the town and in 1932, the buildings located in the Historical Center started to fall, the parish included. It was with faith, resistance and tenacity that the inhabitants decided to move the temple, one stone at a time, 1500 meters from its original position. The remains of the old parish still can be seen and are one of the attractions of this town and the symbol of the strength of the community

 

Another important spot is the Spanish Cemetery that stands out for its beautiful gate with 2 centuries of antiquity. Another interesting place is the Museum of Regional History located where the municipal prison used to work.
At present, at the heart of El Rosario, in front of its main plaza, you will find the most emblematic building in the town. the New Church of Our Lady of The Rosary. This is a new version of the old church and was finished in 1954. You will see here an amazing XVII century altarpiece in the Churriguera style and that is totally covered with 24k gold leaf.

 

El Rosaro has been incorporated to the Pueblos Magicos (Magical Towns) program since 2012. This town is also famous for its quality mangoes and its shrimps. Don't lose the chance to try dishes made with this ingredients.