DURANGO  , sometimes called

CIUDAD DE VICTORIA, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of Durango, 574 M . N.W. of the federal capital, in lat . 24° 25' N., long. roe 55' W . Pop . (1900) 31,092 . Durango is served by the Mexican International railway . The city stands in the picturesque Guadiana valley formed by easterly spurs of the Sierra Madre, about 685o ft. above the sea . It has a mild, healthy climate, and is surrounded by a district of considerable fertility . Durango is an important mining and commercial centre, and was for a time one of the most influential towns of northern Mexico . It is the seat of a bishop, and has a handsome cathedral, ten parish churches, a national institute DURANTE or college, an episcopal seminary, government buildings, a public library, hospital, penitentiary and bull-ring . The city is provided with urban and suburban tramways, electric light, telephone service and an abundant water-supply, and there are thermal springs in its vicinity . Its manufacturing establishments include reduction works, cotton and woollen mills, glass works, iron foundries, tanneries, flour mills, sugar refineries and tobacco factories .

Durango was founded in 1563 by Alonso

Pacheco under the direction of Governor Francisco de Ibarra, who named it after a city of his native province in Spain . It was known, however, as Guadiana for a century thereafter, and its first bishops were given that title . It was the capital of Ibarra's new province of Nueva Viscaya, which included Durango and Chihuahua, and continued as such down to their separation in 1823 .