Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Santa Rosalía is a city located on the Baja California peninsula, in the northern part of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. It was named after Saint Rosalia, although the reason for the name is not quite clear since the Misión de Santa Rosalía is not located by the town, but rather in Mulegé, about 100 km (60 miles) south, and the local parish is devoted to Santa Bárbara. (See: Spanish missions in California.)

Santa Rosalía is a port city, and a regular ferry connects with Guaymas, Sonora, on the other side of the Gulf of California. Daily flights are aso available from Guaymas and twice a week from Hermosillo, Sonora.

This town boasts French influence, particularly in its architecture. A French company called El Boleo founded the town in 1884 and exploited copper mines in this town until 1954 when they shut down. They built houses and installed a metallic church building (The Santa Barbara parish) designed by Gustave Eiffel. A state owned company (CMSRSA) reopened the works using basically the same (rather archaic) technology until the 1980s, when it was definitively closed. Unlike many other mining sites, the industrial facilities which are located in the very middle of the town, were never dismantled and were recently declared industrial museum. The reverberatory furnace and the metallurgical converter are particularly interesting, specially considering their age. However there is no access to the public for it is pretty unsafe. Interesting old locomotives, mining equipment and machinery are readily visible everywhere, witness of the buoyant past. The main company offices (La dirección) was turned into a museum which is very interesting to visit.

It had a population of 9,768 persons as of the 2005 census and is the seat of the municipality of Mulegé.