Cerro de la Silla

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Cerro de la Silla rises from the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental and has shaped how people think about Monterrey for as long as the city has existed. Its name translates simply as Saddle Hill, and from any vantage point in the city below, the reason is plain: its silhouette curves into the distinctive shape of a riding saddle pressed against the sky. It is a natural monument, an emblem, and a backdrop so familiar that people of Monterrey call it their own. But this mountain carries a darker story too, one involving a single day in June 1961 that began as a celebration and ended in grief. What drew someone to build a tramway to this iconic peak? What happened on its opening day? And why does that upper station still stand, silent, decades later?

• 2. A Mountain in Four Parts

  ›

  Pico Norte, the highest of the mountain's four peaks, reaches 1,820 metres above sea level. The lowest point among the peaks is Pico la Virgen, the Virgin's Peak, at 1,750 metres. Between them sit Pico Antena and Pico Sur, giving Cerro de la Silla its four-crowned profile. The mountain spreads across 60.5 square kilometres in total. It does not belong to one municipality alone: just over half of its territory, 55.15 percent, falls within Juárez, while Guadalupe claims 31.62 percent and Monterrey itself holds 13.23 percent. A single geographical feature shared across three municipalities, the mountain sits at the edge of each without belonging entirely to any one of them.

• 3. Monument and Trail

  ›

  The Mexican government set Cerro de la Silla aside as a protected natural monument in 1991. That designation formalized what many people already treated as common understanding: this was not just a hill to be built upon or cleared. Hikers approach the summit by a 5.3 kilometre trail, and the ascent takes roughly three hours to complete. It is considered fairly difficult. The reward at the top is an unobstructed panoramic view of the city of Monterrey spread out below. In Mexico, mountains are commonly referred to as hills rather than mountains, which makes the name Cerro de la Silla a local convention as much as a geographical one.

• 4. The Tramway's Single Day

  ›

  On the 2nd of June 1961, a tramway called the Teleférico en Monterrey was inaugurated on the north side of the mountain. It had been built in the second half of the twentieth century to give the population a faster way to reach the peak. The designer was an engineer named Jesús Fernández, and the inauguration day was meant to mark the start of something. Instead, it became the end. A tragic accident on the same day of its opening killed five people, among them Fernández himself. The tramway was closed that same day and never reopened. Only the upper station survives today. Several proposals to build a replacement tramway have been announced over the years, but none has come to anything.

• 5. The Surrounding Peaks

  ›

  Cerro de la Silla does not stand in isolation. The city of Monterrey is ringed by distinctive elevations, each with its own profile and name. Cerro de las Mitras is one of these neighbours. The Sierra Madre Oriental itself contributes Cerro de Chipinque, whose ridgeline traces an M-shaped figure visible from many parts of the city. Cerro del Topo Chico, Cerro del Obispado, Cerro de la Loma Larga, and La Huasteca complete the circle of landmarks. Together these elevations form the geological frame around Monterrey, but it is the saddle-shaped peak that has been chosen as the city's icon and as the symbol that its people claim as their own.