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GUANAJUATO, or SANTA FE DE GUANAJUATO

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 650 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUANAJUATO, or See also:SANTA FE DE GUANAJUATO  , a See also:city of See also:Mexico and See also:capital of the above See also:state, 155 M . (See also:direct) N.W. of the Federal capital, on a small tributary of the Rio Grande de See also:Lerma or See also:Santiago . Pop . (1895) 39,404; (1900) 41,486 . The city is built in the See also:Canada de Marfil at the junction of three ravines about 6500 ft. above the See also:sea, and its narrow, tortuous streets rise steeply as they follow the ravines upward to the See also:mining villages clustered about the opening of the mines in the hillsides . See also:Guanajuato is sometimes described as a collection of mining villages; but in addition there is the central city with its crowded winding streets, its substantial old See also:Spanish buildings, its fifty ore-crushing See also:mills and busy factories and its bustling commercial See also:life . Enclosing the city are the steep, barren See also:mountain sides honeycombed with mines .. The See also:climate is semi-tropical and is considered healthy . The noteworthy public buildings and institutions are an interesting old Jesuit See also:church with See also:arches of See also:pink See also:stone and delicate See also:carving, eight monasteries, the See also:government See also:palace, a See also:mint dating from 1812, a See also:national See also:college, the See also:fine Teatro See also:Juarez, and the See also:Pantheon, or public See also:cemetery, with catacombs below . The Alhondiga de Granaditas, originally a public granary, was used as a fort during the See also:War of See also:Independence, and is celebrated as the See also:scene of the first See also:battle (181o) in that See also:long struggle . Among the manufactures are cottons, prints, soaps, chemicals, pottery and silverware, .but mining is the See also:principal See also:interest and occupation of the See also:population . The See also:silver mines of the vicinity were long considered the richest in Mexico, the celebrated Veta Madre (See also:mother lode) even being described as the richest in the See also:world; and Guanajuato has the largest reduction See also:works in Mexico .

The railway outlet for the city consists of a See also:

short See also:branch of the Mexican Central, which joins the See also:trunk See also:line at Silao . Guanajuato was founded in 1554 . It attained the dignity of a city in 1741 . It was celebrated for its vigorous resistance to the invaders at the See also:time of the Spanish See also:conquest, and was repeatedly sacked during that war .

End of Article: GUANAJUATO, or SANTA FE DE GUANAJUATO
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