Pre-Hispanic period . It emphasizes the figure of a woman, in her right the
sun and in her counterpart the
moon in
last quarter. Around the year 644 the
Toltecs made their appearance, and this caused the town to be divided into two parts that continued to exist at the time of the Spanish conquest: Tetitlan and Actopan. and because of this invasion, it became dependent on
Acolhuacan in 1120. Historian Peter Gerhar mentions that Actopan was first visited by the Spaniards before the conquest was consummated, at the end of 1519 or beginning of 1520. Between 1521 and 1524, a certain political-military control was established in almost all the territories subject to the
Mexica empire, including Actopan. Subsequently, the
encomienda was assigned to Rodrigo Gómez de Ávila, who in 1538 ceded his rights to his son-in-law, Juan Martínez Guerrero. The
water supply was one of the main problems of the town, in 1546 the construction of an
aqueduct began. it is said that the Augustinians, upon seeing the topography of Lxcuinquitlapilco, decided to change the head of the town to Actopan. From 1550 to 1560 the
Convent of San Nicolás de Tolentino is built; and the work is attributed to Fray Andrés de Mata. In 1560, Actopan became a dependency of
Pachuca, but it was separated, and became
Alcaldía mayor in 1568; Actopan was the head and the towns around it were the
República de Indios. The description of Fray Juan de Medina, in 1571, contained in the "Description of the Archbishopric of Mexico", mentions that in Ixcuintlapilco there were 4000 tributaries, in Tenantitlán 1300 and in Actopan 7000. It is known that by the 1570s, the convent complex was already completed, with three main buildings: the open chapel, the church and the convent; in addition to the stables, the orchard and a water supply system of great proportions for community use. In 1575 it was granted the category of village. In 1576 the
prior of the convent, Fray Melchor de Vargas, printed the first
catechism in
Otomi. Beginning in 1593, a second effort was made to form congregations of
indios; In 1615 the quota of workers that Actopan sent to work in the mines of Pachuca was established, 22
indios every two weeks. in 1571 there were 7500 tributaries, while by 1599 these had decreased to 2984. In 1643, there were 1092 tributaries, and in 1688, there were 1509. After the revolt of 1677 in
Ixmiquilpan, where the
indios revolted not to work in the mines, a commissioner arrived in Actopan to take away crews, but the
indios mutinied and resisted. In 1681 the prosecutor advised that the i
ndios of Actopan should not be forced to work in the mines. On January 5, 1722, a notification arrives from the mayor of
Pachuca to send the workers batches to the mines. On January 7, a delegation arrived from Pachuca to insist on the sending of the batches. On January 9, 1722, the governors began to organize the batches and the
indios of the jurisdiction of Actopan revolted to prevent the reinstatement of the mining distribution system.
, on August 9, 1785, a jagüey'' was inaugurated in the city. , by
Alexander von Humboldt, which he drew during his visit to the region. On January 16, 1722, a retinue from the
viceroy arrived in the jurisdiction, in which it was ordered to proceed with the pacification, apprehension of the
culprits, as well as the effective implementation of the
repartimiento. On January 22, only two involved were apprehended and taken to jail. The
indios of Actopan had to accept the work regime, with the exception of the town of Santiago Tlachichilco (
Santiago de Anaya). Not many joined the rebellion and with the
militia that the Mayor was able to gather, it was enough to dissuade the mutineers. In the 1740s,
José Antonio Villaseñor y Sánchez, in his book
Theatro Americano, mentions that the municipality had a total of 13 subject towns and had a population of "fifty families of Spaniards and twenty of mestizos and mulattos and other people and two thousand seven hundred and fifty families of
indios, all of the Otomí language, distributed in all its subject towns". On November 16, 1750, the
Convent of Actopan became part of the
Archdiocese of Mexico, and the first priest was the parish priest Juan Barrera. The following day, the general lieutenant mayor of Actopan, Andrés de Aguilar, received the order and notified the governors of the Actopan and Tetitilán partiality. Both governments accepted the order, but said that they could only organize crews of 60 workers from Actopan and 50 from Tetitlán. A part of the rebels, hiding in the Meje hill, tried to take the town. On May 22 he spent the night in the town of
Baños de Atotonilco near the
Villa de Magdalena and the
Puente de Dios. located 17 km southeast of Actopan in the
municipality of El Arenal.
Independence and Independent Mexico Regarding the participation of the city in the
Independence of Mexico, in February 1812, the
royalist, Domingo Claverino arrived to the city. In 1847, it received the title of town, given by the Extraordinary Legislature of the
Congress of the State of Mexico. decreed the division of the
State of Mexico into three military districts, the second formed by the territories that integrate the
State of Hidalgo, for which he designated Actopan as capital and named
Pedro Hinojosa as commander. In May 1864, the authorities of Actopan and San Agustín Metzquititlán, recognized the
Second Mexican Empire. On January 8, 1869, the news arose that Actopan would be designated as the capital, supposing that such designation was to distance the government from the influence of the
Real del Monte and Pachuca Company; however, the city was rejected for not having the necessary infrastructure. He was taken to
Chalco, where he was shot in the courtyard of the
Escuela del Rayo y del Socialismo in September 1869. On December 2, 1871
Sotero Lozano attacked Actopan; but he retreated to return being defeated by colonels Inclán and Villagrán. On September 16, 1875, the
Pachuca-Actopan
telegraph line was inaugurated. During the
Tuxtepec Revolution on April 24, 1876, a combat between the forces of Colonel San Martin and the Porfiristas took place; the latter were forced to retreat. On July 22, the government troops commanded by General José María Flores, forced the Tuxtepecans to leave Actopan, which they had held for several days.
Porfiriato and Mexican Revolution In 1898 the City Hall decreed July 8 as a municipal holiday. In 1900, the
sewage canals from the drainage of
Mexico City reached the jurisdiction of Actopan. The participation of the locality is minimal during the revolutionary process. On July 5, 1914, Martínez y Martínez expelled the Huertista Army from the city. after the evacuation of the huertista Martin Zayas. In November 1914, Higinio Olivo was defeated by the villistas in Actopan. On September 2, 1915, Actopan and
Ixmiquilpan were in the hands of the Constitutionalist forces commanded by General Odilón Moreno. On July 2, 1922, the garrison of Actopan, commanded by Salvador Mayorga, accompanied by the Rodriguez brothers, rose up in arms. During the
Delahuertista rebellion on January 1, 1924, Nicolás Flores issues a manifesto in Actopan, in which he makes it known that he has been named
governor of Hidalgo by
Adolfo de la Huerta. On January 4, 1924, a combat takes place in
Chicavasco between the federal forces, under the orders of Colonel Julio T. Villegas, and those of General Cavazos. On January 5, a combat takes place between the federal and rebel troops of Generals Marcial Cavazos, Nicolás Flores and Otilio Villegas, and those of Colonel Francisco López Soto. On June 27, 1933, the complex was managed by the
Direction of Colonial Monuments of the Republic; on February 2 of the same year, it had been declared an artistic and historical monument. On February 2, 1933, the
Church and Convent of San Nicolás de Tolentino was declared a National Historic and Artistic Monument. in a letter signed by the president of the club, Federico Hernández, they asked
Manuel Toussaint, directly from INAH, to use it as a court, committing himself to its cleaning and care. On July 27, 1966, a decree was published in which the
Government of Mexico cedes to the
Government of the State of Hidalgo, an annex of the property of the convent to build a sports field, and on August 17, 1966, it was published in the
Official Journal of the Federation; being the denominated "
Jagüey" the ceded annex. On January 27, 1987, an earthquake of 4.1 on the
Richter scale was reported; with a depth of 15 km. After the 1990 census, according to statistical data,
INEGI, recognizes the towns of Cañada Chica Aviación and Pozo Grande as officially
conurbed to the city of Actopan.
21st century located in the Reforma Park designed and built to commemorate the
Bicentennial of the Independence of Mexico and the
Centennial of the Mexican Revolution. On February 28, 2001, during a tour of Mexico, the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation held a rally in the city. On July 8, 2001, the remodeling of Plaza Juárez was inaugurated, maintaining this aspect until today. Between 2005 and 2006 the
Terminal de Autotransportes de Actopan was built, and in 2008 part of the Old Municipal Palace was demolished to construct a new building that would house new City Hall offices and the Plaza Constitución. Also in 2008 the
Actopan Obelisk was built, located in the Reforma Park, The Actopan
overpass was completed in March 2009. From May 17 to 21, 2010 there were twenty-two earthquakes in the region, with an intensity of between 3.0 and 4.0 on the
Richter scale, with their epicenter at an average distance of 13 km north of the city. Between 2013 and 2015 the remodeling of the July 8 Market took place. Between April 23 and 24, 2016 the north wall of what was the old municipal palace was demolished. On December 30, 2016, close to 500 merchants held a caravan in the center of the city in
protest of the increase in gasoline prices. On January 4, 2017, after different protests, both directions of the Mexico-Laredo federal highway were closed, in front of the truck station. Different stores such as
Aurrerá,
Comercial Mexicana and
OXXO were
looted; while the
tianguis, which is set up on Wednesdays, did not operate completely and different stores remained closed. Of the five gas stations in the city, two were looted by different groups of people who gave away gasoline. The
September 7 earthquake in Chiapas and the
September 19 earthquake in Puebla were felt in the city, and in general terms there was no serious structural damage. The earthquake of greatest intensity recorded during 2018 in Hidalgo, occurred on March 20 at 04:06 p. m. in the municipality of Actopan, with 3.9 degrees on the Richter scale. On May 30, 2018, about 15 ha, located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood, were consumed by a
fire. On May 18, 2018, a construction company located in the Centro neighborhood was robbed; an operation was implemented to search for the vehicle, and a chase was initiated in
El Arenal. It was at the junction of the highway with
Tolcayuca and
Villa de Tezontepec, where it collided with a bus; resulting in two dead and seven detainees. On March 30, 2020, two people were gunned down on Churubusco Street, on the corner of 2 de Abril, one block from the Obelisco de Actopan. On March 19, different public spaces were closed due to the health emergency caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic. On April 20, 2020, it was reported that the Wednesday
tianguis, scheduled for April 22, 2020, was suspended. On April 26, 2020, the first case of
COVID-19 was announced in Actopan. As of April 30, access to vehicles was restricted to the center of the city and a sanitary fence was placed. The Actopan City Hall informed the temporary suspension of the Wednesday and Sunday
tianguis, as of May 6; as of May 13, the Wednesday
tianguis agreed to be temporarily relocated to the side of the Actopan-La Estancia highway. On May 11, 2020, the COVID-19 Actopan Immediate Response Hospital, which was built in 15 days, was inaugurated. On May 14, the first death was reported in Actopan. On June 14, the Sunday
tianguis was reinstalled, and on June 17, the Wednesday
tianguis was reinstalled in the center of the city. On June 23 it was announced that the Barbacoa Fair held in the city was suspended. The patronal feast of San Nicolás de Tolentino was also cancelled. On September 25, 2020, the circulation of vehicles in the downtown area of Actopan was resumed. Faced with an increase in COVID-19 infections, as of February 1, 2021; the Actopan City Hall decided to restrict vehicle access to the city center, placed a sanitary fence, closed the Municipal Presidency, and suspended the city's
tianguis. By March 2021, circulation in the city center was reopened; and by mid-July, Plaza Juarez was reopened; on March 13, 2022, Parque La Reforma was reopened. == Geography ==