Get to know Ciudad Victoria

Many cities have been founded with the mountains witnessing their development, such Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas capital, is the case. The place combines comforts with natural landscapes reachable in a matter of minutes.

Ciudad Victoria is on Sierra Madre Oriental foothill over Purificación River watershed, in Tamaulipas center. It’s surrounded by Güémez, Llera, Casas and Jaumave neighboring municipalities.

It’s 3 hours 10 minutes by road from Tampico, 3 hours from Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí, and four hours from Monterrey, Nuevo León. The closest airport is Tampico, so you can also take a flight and then rent a car or bus travel to this destination.

Ciudad Victoria climate is semi-hot and humid, with temperatures reaching above 40º C at shade in hot season, which begins to be felt in May. Of course, due to its Sierra Madre Oriental proximity they can down to zero degrees Celsius in winter.

Villa de Santa María de Aguayo was city’s name in 1750, and its patron saint was the Immaculate Concepción, later it turned into Nuevo Santander and, finally, in 1825, it was officially called Ciudad Victoria, honoring President Guadalupe Victoria.

The founders of the area where the city is today were a group of families from the missions of the Californias. After 1750 was established a village whose main enemies were the natives refused being their lands dispossessed. Later, some Nuevo León families would come establishing a hacienda to exploit Sierra Madre Oriental mines.

Throughout its history, Ciudad Victoria has shown itself as a developing city. Curiously, it was here where the Latin America’s first kindergarten was founded: in 1896 by the teacher Estefanía Castañeda Núñez de Cáceres.

At the end of the 19th century, Porfirio Díaz gave the green light to the urban railway operation—a train pulled by animals that went to the Hacienda de Tamatán. At this same time were inaugurated Paseo Méndez and Paseo Palermo, inspired by Paris’ Champs Elysees aesthetics.

You’ll find the best city views going up to the Sanctuary of Guadalupe at Loma del Muerto (Hillock of the Dead) top. Around, the first city’s settlers old houses are; most still retain their Californian colonial architecture.