Taxco

Taxco de Alarcón on the map of Guerrero

Taxco de Alarcón is a city in Mexico. It has around 50,000 inhabitants and is located in the north of the State of Guerrero in the Sierra Madre del Sur. Main economic activities are processing, trading and exporting of silver and tourism. The place is a Pueblo Magico and administrative center of Taxco de Alarcón.

The name Taxco is derived from the Indian word Tlachco, which means "place of the ballgame ." The present name Taxco de Alarcón also reminiscent of the famous Mexican- Spanish writers Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza (1581-1639), who was born probably in Mexico City, has lived and worked in Taxco, before he lived in Spain and died there.

1528 some 20 kilometers was established the first Spanish settlement called Taxco Taxco from today and started with the silver mining.

In the 18th century, Don José de la Borda earned the Silver Taxco a large fortune and thanked the city with the construction of the church of Santa Prisca, which is due to their architecture in the style of colonial baroque (see colonial ) one of the most famous churches in America.

In 1931 the artist William Spratling Silver came to town and made Taxco silver work world famous. Even today is produced in his style and the part of the folk festival Feria de la Plata (the largest folk festival in the city - Plata = " Silver " Feria = " fair ", " hard " ) annual prize for the best work of the year, carries his name.

Nowadays exists in Taxco still a silver mine, but the majority of silver comes from mines in the area around the city of Guanajuato, in the same State, and is processed in Taxco.