74 Best Sights in San Miguel de Allende and the Heartland, Mexico

One of the most recently excavated cities of ancient Mesoamerica, La Cañada de la Virgen represents the northern boundary of this pre-Columbian civilization whose ancestors and customs have only recently been revealed. Only the priestly castes lived on the site, which was occupied between approximately AD 540 and 1050. Ceremonial graves show that people were buried with pottery and other artifacts, as well as animals, such as the coyote, thought to guide the deceased to the afterlife. Among those discovered so far is the only female warrior found in Mesoamerica to date.

A half-dozen groups of buildings of locally quarried limestone in a variety of hues comprise the site. Both the access road and the temple mounds (the permanent structures on which temples of perishable materials were constructed) were aligned in a precise orientation (west to east) that mirrored the movement of the stars, sun, and moon.

Within Complex D, Casa del Viento (House of the Wind) is a circular building seemingly dedicated to Ehecatl, the god of the wind. In Complex B, Casa de la Noche Más Larga (House of the Longest Night) shows distinct periods of construction. Here are a steam bath and granary.

In Complex A, Casa de los 13 Cielos (House of the 13 Skies) is the only structure visitors can climb, and affords good views of the site and surrounding countryside. Atop the structure in Templo Rojo (Red Temple), archaeologists have discovered a burial site with an unusual twist: carbon dating indicates that the warrior entombed here died at least 1,000 years before he was buried in this location. Because this was earlier than the site’s founding, the corpse or skeleton was obviously transported here from elsewhere.

Unlike the major archaeological sites of southern Mexico, La Cañada de la Virgen (Virgin’s Canyon) sees only a few dozen visitors on an average day. All must meet at the visitor center, where a guide explains history during a short bus ride to the site, set among rolling hills and studded with mesquite trees, cacti, and other desert plants.

Tours leave on the hour, from 10 am to 4 pm. The nominal entrance fee includes guide (not all guides speak fluent English, though most speak enough to get by) and transportation from the visitor center to the archaeological site. Arrive 15 minutes before the hour to purchase tickets.

No bags or even purses are allowed on-site, so wear pants with pockets if you want to stash a camera or other items. Wear a sun hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.

A maze of shops featuring Purépecha handiwork is housed in this former 18th-century convent. As you meander through the shops and courtyards, you'll encounter weavers producing large bolts of cloth, artists working with black lacquerware trimmed with gold, vendors selling woven hats and place mats, and seamstresses embroidering blouses. Prices are very reasonable. Some shops close for lunch from 2 to 4.

Officially called La Iglesia de San Cayetano—and a 15-minute trek from the city center—this is one of the best-known colonial churches in Mexico. The mid- to late-18th-century pink-stone facade is brilliantly ornate. Inside are three altars, each hand carved in wood and brightly gilded, in different styles: plateresque, churrigueresque, and baroque. There are also religious paintings from the viceregal period.

Both the mine and church are included in guided tours of Guanajuato, and buses (marked "La Valenciana") frequently make the trip from the city center.

The tranquil shores of Lake Pátzcuaro are a 10-minute cab ride from downtown. There are two different muelles (docks) from which you can catch a boat to Janítzio, but you should head to the central muelle, which offers far more frequent service. Wooden launches with room for 25 people (but that rarely take that many) depart for Janítzio and the other islands daily from 9 to 5. Purchase round-trip tickets at a dockside office. For those who enjoy bucolic settings, it is absolutely worthwhile to visit La Pacanda, a quiet and peaceful island: amazing flowers abound, cows laze about, and the few inhabitants of the island go about their daily activities—which do not include trying to sell you souvenirs. La Pacanda might be even more idyllic than tiny Yunuen, but most folks won't want to stay more than an hour or so. If you want to linger, however, both La Pacanda and Yunuen offer simple yet clean visitor cabins for stays of overnight or longer.

Feel the ordinary world fade away with a trip to the decidedly off-the-beaten-path Las Pozas, the extraordinary sculpture garden of the late, eccentric English millionaire Edward James (1907–84). A friend to artists Dalí and Picasso and rumored to be King Edward VII's illegitimate son, James spent 20 years building 36 Surrealist concrete structures deep in the waterfall-filled Xilitla jungle. These astonishing structures are half-finished fantasy castles, gradually falling to ruin as the rain forest slithers in to claim them. The castles don't have walls, just vine-wrapped pillars, secret passageways, and operatic staircases leading nowhere.

It's a six- to seven-hour thrilling but exhausting mountainous drive to Xilitla, with hairpin turns and spectacular desert, forest, and jungle vistas. On the way to Xilitla it's well worth taking the time to stop at the five Sierra Gorda missions established by Padre Junípero Serra in the 18th century. They're a mixture of baroque styles and the local imagination of the Indians who worked on them, with angels, saints, and flora and fauna in great profusion.

Plan on staying at least two nights, as you'll want time to soak up the jungle magic.

If you choose not to drive, you can take a bus to Ciudad Valles (a 1½-hour drive from Xilitla) or fly to Tampico (a 3½-hour drive from Xilitla), and arrange ahead for the staff of Posada El Castillo to pick you up.

Tequis has a well-deserved reputation for high-quality craftwork, from wicker baskets to opals; head to the Mercado de Artesanías for woven goods, wood, ceramics, and jewelry.

If you have a sweet tooth, don't miss Morelia's candy market. All sorts of local sweets are for sale, such as ate (a candied fruit) and cajeta (heavenly caramel sauce made from goat's milk). Wooden knickknacks, cheap jewelry, and handcrafted acoustic guitars are among the nondigestible crafts.

It's a 10- or 15-minute walk from Jardín de la Union to see this 1910 structure of pink quarry stone, cast iron, and glass, designed by the one-and-only Gustave Eiffel.

T-shirts and cheap plastic toys fill the balcony stalls, but the lower level is full of fresh produce, hot food, and colorful basketry, as well as peanuts and regional candies (some shaped like mummies).

From 1586 until 1960 this mine supplied Zacatecas with most of its silver. Most tours are in Spanish, but props and dioramas within the individual caves (those that aren't flooded) help re-create a picture of the miner's life. Visitors enter on a little train, but there is walking, too, and plenty of steps; wear sturdy shoes and bring a sweater. There's a snack shop, a museum where you can see examples of different minerals and fossils, and, of course, the obligatory gift shop.

Located in the former home of an Independence fighter, this charming museum facing the main square is also known as la Casa de Mariano Abasolo. While the placards are in Spanish only, most of the small artifacts on display—everything from finely embroidered tea towels, to lapel pins with the image of "President for Life" Porfirio Díaz, to carefully preserved cigar bands several centuries old—speak for themselves. There are also a number of black-and-white photos of Dolores Hidalgo in the days before the Mexican Revolution.

What is now a two-story museum was acquired in 1801 by José María Morelos and was home to generations of the independence leader's family until 1934. It exhibits family portraits, various independence-movement artifacts (including a camp bed used by Ignacio Allende), and a fragment of the blindfold Morelos wore at his execution. Display tags are in Spanish only, but interesting information about the independence movement is presented in both English and Spanish.

The birthplace of Diego Rivera contains family portraits, period furniture (late-19th- and early-20th-century pieces re-creating the painter's family home), and finished works and sketches by Mexico's foremost muralist; among them are his studies for the controversial mural commissioned for New York City's Rockefeller Center. Completed in 1933, the mural's portrait of Lenin and overall Communist bent prompted Rivera's benefactors to destroy it immediately after it was displayed. The museum's upper galleries show revolving contemporary art exhibitions, often from other countries.

Once Father Hidalgo's home, Museo Casa Miguel Hidalgo is now a museum with copies of Hidalgo's important letters and other independence memorabilia.

José María Morelos's birthplace is now a national monument and library, with mostly literature and history books, naive paintings of the rebel, and prints of old Morelia (as well as two murals by Morelian Alfredo Zalce). In the back courtyard, a marker and an eternal flame honor the fallen hero.

While not something to go out of your way to visit, this museum is just a few blocks from the more interesting Museo Casa de Morelos.

On a lovely property a stone's throw from both the aqueduct and the Bosque Cuauhtémoc, this late-19th-century summer home is now Michoacán's principal contemporary-art museum. The permanent collection has work by famed muralist, lithographer, and illustrator Alfredo Zalce, a Pátzcuaro native. Some of Mexico's leading contemporary artists have temporary exhibitions here. Dance, cinema, theater, and music performances are held regularly in the small auditorium.

Although less visited than some of the city's better-known attractions, this excellent (and free) art museum shows thoughtful and well-curated rotating exhibits of contemporary art. It's on a hilltop in the attractive La Cruz neighborhood, in a beautiful historic building beside the imposing Santuario de la Santa Cruz de Los Milagros. There are two floors of galleries, and the art is by a mix of regional and international artists.

Focusing mostly on European and Mexican artwork, this baroque 18th-century Augustinian monastery-turned-museum exhibits paintings from the 17th through 19th centuries, as well as multiple rotating exhibits of contemporary art. Ask about the symbolism of the columns and the figures in conch shells atop each arch on the fascinating baroque patio.

The 16th-century home of the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo now displays colonial and contemporary crafts, such as ceramics, masks, lacquerware, paintings, and ex-votos in its many rooms. Information is in Spanish only. Behind this building is a troje (traditional Purépecha wooden house) braced atop a stone platform.

At the top of Cerro de la Bufa is the Museo de la Toma de Zacatecas, which has 10 rooms of historic objects such as guns, newspapers, furniture, and clothing from the days of Pancho Villa.

Mummified human corpses—once buried in the adjacent municipal cemetery—are on display in this unique and fascinating museum at the town's west end. In 1865 the first corpse, that of a French doctor, was removed to make room for new arrivals because the burial fee hadn't been maintained. Because of the mineral properties of the local soil, the cadaver was in astonishingly good condition upon exhumation. Today this and 100 other mummies are displayed: everything from tiny babies to old crones. The museum has been upgraded several times over the years, and despite the macabre subject matter, is artistically presented and well worth a visit. You'll need to catch a cab to get here; it's atop a steep hill.

Across from a small plaza with statues of Bishop Vasco de Quiroga and Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, this history museum is in a stately mansion that was previously home to the wife of Agustín de Iturbide, Mexico's only native-born emperor. Among the 18th-century home's highlights is a complete Morelia pharmacy from 1868. On display are regional archaeological artifacts and exhibits about mining and indigenous culture.

During his imprisonment in a Spanish concentration camp in the 1930s, Spanish writer and journalist Eulalio Ferrer was so uplifted by Miguel de Cervantes's classic novel that he developed a lifelong passion for Don Quixote. This restored 19th-century home is a museum displaying Ferrer's collection of more than 600 pieces of art, all dedicated to the man of La Mancha. Gathered after he fled Fascist Spain for Mexico, the star-studded collection includes works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Jose Luis Cuevas, and Alfredo Zalce. The museum sponsors weekly free and inexpensive events, currently art films on Monday (free) and live music Thursday (MX$50), among other cultural events, usually at 8 pm. A bookshop and café front the museum.

Originally a Jesuit seminary and later a Dominican monastery, this building was used as a jail in the 18th century, and is now a museum that exhibits the work of Zacatecas artist and sculptor Pedro Coronel. Also on display is his extensive collection of works by Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Braque, and Chagall, among others, as well as art from Africa, China, Japan, India, Tibet, Greece, and Egypt.

Concealed by the former Convento de San Francisco's mellow, pink, 18th-century facade is a rambling structure of open, arched corridors, all leading through garden patios to rooms that exhibit, on a rotating basis, 3,000 of the museum's 10,000 máscaras (masks). These representations of saints and devils, wise men and fools, animals and humans were (and still are, in some parts of Mexico) used in regional religious festivals. The museum also has a remarkable display of puppets, pre-Hispanic art, photography, and paintings.

Because the collection can be overwhelming and the grounds are very pretty, you might take a snack and enjoy a small outdoor break during your visit.

Formerly an 18th-century palace, the museum traces Mexico's history from its pre-Hispanic days through the Cardenista period, which ended in 1940. President Lázaro Cárdenas, a native of Michoacán, was one of Mexico's most popular leaders because he nationalized the oil industry and supported other populist reforms. On the ground floor is an art gallery, plus archaeological artifacts (many intact) from Michoacán. Upstairs is an assortment of colonial objects, including furniture, clothing, household objects, and religious paintings. Displays are labeled in Spanish only.

Notable graduates of this former Tridentine seminary, built in 1770, include independence hero José María Morelos, social reformer Melchor Ocampo, and Mexico's first emperor, Agustín de Iturbide. In the 1960s local artist Alfredo Zalce painted the extensive yet simplistic murals (on the stairway and second floor), which depict dramatic, often bloody scenes from Mexico's history. There's a tourist office here, too.

Across from el palacio de gobierno (state government office) is a national monument, an18th-century colonial building with lacy ironwork balconies, built from native pink stone. Today housing the Justice Department (Tribunal Superior de Justicia), its historical name is "Palace of the Bad Night," which, according to legend, was the home of a silver-mine owner. The mine had failed, so, left with only enough funds to pay his workers' final wages, he went to pray at the cathedral. On the way home he ran into a woman whose son was sick and gave her everything he had. Early the next morning loud banging on the door seemed to herald his doom, but upon opening the door he was instead informed that the mine workers had found the richest gold vein ever seen in these parts.

Dubbed La Casa de la Corregidora, this building now houses the city's municipal government offices, but in 1810 it was home to Querétaro's mayor-magistrate (El Corregidor) and his wife, Josefa Ortíz de Domínguez (La Corregidora). La Corregidora's literary salon was actually a cover for conspirators—including Ignacio Allende and Father Miguel Hidalgo—to plot a course for independence. When he discovered the salon's true nature, El Corregidor imprisoned his wife in her room, but not before she alerted Allende and Hidalgo. Soon after, on September 15, Father Hidalgo tolled the bell of his church to signal the onset of the fight for freedom. A replica of that bell caps this building, and two contemporary murals in the central courtyard depict key players in Querétaro's history.

This multipurpose park at the eastern edge of the historic center (just three long blocks from the main plaza) has ancient trees, flower-lined paths ideal for a morning jog, a basketball court, and a children's play area with swings and fun things to climb. Local artists sell paintings and prints on Saturday, beginning at 10 am, on the north side of the park; during the first two weeks of February, more than a hundred vendors gather to sell mountains of decorative plants and baby fruit trees, as well as ceramic pots.

This is the largest zoo in Mexico, with more than 3,800 wild animals. It also has the largest aviary in Latin America. This is a great place to take the kids, and there's an especially exciting nighttime tour Friday at 7:30; otherwise the zoo closes at 5 pm during the week, or 6 pm on weekends.