Durango was founded in 1563 beside a mountain of iron ore and grew rich on it. The centre is built from pink volcanic stone and is largely intact — a cathedral begun in 1695, the Palacio de Zambrano, and a long pedestrian street of arcades where the city eats in the evening.
The city's second life was cinematic. From 1954 the sierra and the desert around it became Mexico's western country: The Sons of Katie Elder, The Wild Bunch and well over a hundred others were filmed here, and the sets at Villa del Oeste and Chupaderos north of the city are still standing and can be visited — the latter decaying in a way no set designer could manage.
The Museo Francisco Villa occupies a nineteenth-century mansion and covers the revolution in a state that supplied much of its fighting.
Durango is also the usual starting point for the drive west to Mazatlán, either on the motorway or over the old Espinazo del Diablo road.
The caldo de mariscos here is good despite the sea being six hours away, and the local sweet — mezcal de durango aside — is the gorditas sold from carts on the pedestrian street.