La Parroquia de la Purísima Concepción (Álamos)

Construction on La Parroquia de la Purísima Concepción began in the 1780s, funded by the silver wealth flowing out of the mines at Álamos and neighboring Aduana, then among the richest deposits in New Spain. The church's stone facade and twin-tower silhouette face the arcaded Plaza de Armas, itself ringed by the mansions of the mining families who bankrolled the building. Inside, the nave preserves colonial-era retablos and a modest but well-kept baroque interior, less ornate than the great Bajío churches but solid evidence of the wealth the Río Mayo silver district generated for nearly two centuries. Álamos's fortunes and its people were directly tied to the northward expansion of New Spain: money and settlers raised in this town helped fund Juan Bautista de Anza's 1775-76 expedition that founded San Francisco. The church survived the town's 19th- and 20th-century mining busts and depopulation, and its restoration since the 1950s, led in part by American expatriates who bought up crumbling mansions, helped Álamos earn recognition as a National Historic Monument and later a Pueblo Mágico. Sunday morning Mass and the town's Alfonso Ortiz Tirado music festival each January are when the plaza and church are busiest.