Montemorelos

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Montemorelos is a small city of roughly 50,000 inhabitants located in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, in the valley of the Pilon River. It is named after its founder.

The valle of Pilon River was colonized in 1653 by Spaniards coming from nearby Cerralvo, the former capital of Nuevo Leon. In 1701 the Villa of San Mateo del Pilon was founded, to became a city in 1825.

Montemorelos is connected to Monterrey and to the Gulf of Mexico by a modern highway and a freight rail service. There are no commercial flights.

Montemorelos, cornerstone of the "orange belt" of the State of Nuevo Leon, bases its economy in the agroindustrial sector. Orange trees were introduced in 1892, and since then it changed the economy and life style of the town for good.

Montemorelos' climate is subtropical, clearly more humid than the rest of the state.

The town is home of the University of Montemorelos "Universidad de Montemorelos", a private institution linked to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Since 1942 and for most of the 20th century, the hospital associated with this university was a referral center for the whole orange belt area and beyond.

Montemorelos' inhabitants are mostly Catholic, but a relevant Seventh Day Adventist community has been settled around the University and confered a peculiar cultural life to the town.