Zacatecas Mines

Zacatecas Mines trace back to the Spanish silver strike of the 1540s, when these hills became a hinge point in New Spain’s economy and the bullion circuits that linked Mexico to Europe and Asia. Tunnels, shafts, and waste heaps of pyrite, selenite, and smelting slag form a geological diary of extraction, changing techniques, and constant danger, revealing how underground labor financed the baroque city above. For Zacatecans, the mines remain both an origin story and an uneasy memory of wealth wrested from stone.