Real de Catorce has long been a pilgrimage site for both local Catholics and Huichol shamanists, and is now being discovered by international tourists drawn by the desert ambience and reputed spiritual energy.

These mountains lie in the arid Mexican Plateau, cut off from trade winds of the Gulf of Mexico by the high peaks of the Sierra Madre Oriental.

The Cerro Quemado mountain is an important site for the Huichol ceremonial migration, Peyote hunt, and deer dance.

Later on June 9, 2001 it was declared as a National Sacred Site under the State of San Luis Potosí's Natural Protection act.

Real de Catorce's heyday was in the late 19th century, when it had a population of 15,000, with some of Mexico's richest silver mines and a mint, as well as a bullring and shops selling European luxury goods.

It was almost completely abandoned when the price of silver plummeted after 1900; only a few people remained in this ghost town, eking out a living from mine tailings and an annual influx of pilgrims to a reputedly miraculous image of St. Francis in the parish church.

[5] Thousands of pilgrims visit the Parish of Immaculate Conception the week around the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4 to express their gratitude for favors granted.

During this time, they also visit the Wirikuta or desert below Real de Catorce to gather a year's supply of sacred nourishment in the form of peyote or "hikuri", the magical cactus that they use to guide their path and consciousness.