Attractions

Special Events & Festivals

In April, the International Guitar Festival (www.figmorelia.com) attracts performers from Latin America and Europe. In May, the city holds the International Organ Festival (linked to the variable feast day of Corpus Christi). The cathedral has a very large pipe organ that sounds wonderful. Every year, four organists are invited to give concerts there. In October, the city holds its increasingly popular film festival, Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (www.moreliafilmfest.com). The International Festival of Music is held in November, with a series of concerts performed over 2 weeks. Performers come from all over.

The largest civic celebrations are in September, the month of the fiestas patrias. Independence Day is celebrated on September 15 and 16. Then, on September 29 and 30, Morelia celebrates the birthday of its favorite son, José María Morelos, a patriot and revolutionary hero. The second celebration is actually bigger than the first, but both include parades, street parties, and large fireworks displays.

A Stroll Through the Colonial Center

Downtown Morelia is a good town for walking. One comes across interesting details on just about any street, and street crime is infrequent. The walk outlined below could take an entire day. The museums open at 9am; you'll find a lot of places closed on Mondays, holidays, and between 2 and 4pm. For a guided tour of the city, contact the guide mentioned in the section on the monarch butterfly migration. He can give a lot of local color and provide details about the city's history and architecture.

The cathedral is the place to begin. Built with the pink volcanic stone (cantera in Spanish) that Morelia is famous for, it's the most beautiful cathedral in Mexico. Notice how Avenida Madero widens as it passes in front of the cathedral, and how a cross street lines up with its facade. Morelia's planners sought to lend prominence to the city's churches by the placement of plazas and the alignment of streets to allow good views. This cathedral took the place of an earlier one; construction began in 1640 and ended in 1745. The new cathedral incorporated the styles of religious architecture already in the city, including plateresque, mannerist, and a reserved style of baroque. The cathedral's impressive size and monumental proportions were necessary to place it at the top of the hierarchy of the city's temples, and to make obvious Morelia's superiority to rival Pátzcuaro. The Italian architect who designed it worked closely with the authorities of Morelia's sizable religious community, and he did a masterful job balancing the architectural elements in the facade and shaping the proportions of the towers. The inside is stately, but much of the cathedral's most valuable possessions were plundered. Things to look for include the beautiful organ with 4,600 pipes; the silver baptismal font where Mexico's first emperor, Agustín de Iturbide, was baptized; and the elegant choir with carved wooden stalls. Tip: If you're in Morelia on a Saturday, make sure to be around the cathedral when the lights are turned on. This is accompanied by a fireworks display.

Across Avenida Madero from the cathedral is a two-story stone building crowned with finials and fanciful decorations on the corners: the Palacio del Gobierno, built in 1732 as a seminary. It now holds sweeping murals depicting the history of Michoacán and Mexico. Some are the work of a well-known local artist, Alfredo Zalce.

As you leave the palacio, turn left and walk down Madero for 2 blocks. Turn right at a small church on your right with a tall wrought-iron fence. The name of the street is Vasco de Quiroga. Walk 1 block, and to your left you'll see a broad plaza and the church and convent of San Francisco. This is one of the two oldest religious buildings in Morelia. It draws on the Spanish Renaissance architectural style known as plateresque (already antiquated by the time of construction) because the builders wanted to accentuate their Spanish heritage. The convent is quite striking; it has elegant, Moorish windows on the second floor, borrowed from Spanish Mudéjar architecture. The interior courtyard, unlike any other in Morelia, has a medieval feel. Instead of being broad and open with light arches, it is closed and narrow, with heavy columns set closely together and thick buttressing. The former convent now houses a local handicrafts museum and the best shopping in Morelia.

From San Francisco (if you're not going to the market), take the street that lines up with the facade of the church and walk 2 blocks west to Calle Morelos Sur (you'll see Plaza Melchor Ocampo). Turn left. One block down, on the left-hand side, is the Casa Museo de Morelos, Morelos Sur 323 (tel. 443/313-2651). This is where José María Morelos lived as an adult (there's another Morelos museum in the house where he was born, but it has little of interest). A grand house, with furniture and personal effects that belonged to the independence leader, as well as a period kitchen, this museum is worth a visit. For history buffs, there is an exhibition on his four campaigns against royalist forces. The museum is open daily from 9am to 7pm; admission is $3 (£1.50).

The next place to see is the Museo Regional Michoacano, at the intersection of Allende and Abasolo (tel. 443/312-0407). To get there, walk uphill the way you came, and then make a left when you get back to Plaza Melchor Ocampo. Walk through the stone arcades behind the cathedral

Continue west to the end of the arcades. Across the street, cater-corner to the Plaza de Armas, is the museum. It provides a colorful view of the state from prehistoric times to Mexico's Cardenist period of the 1930s. Isidor Huarte, father of Ana Huarte, Emperor Iturbide's wife, originally owned the building, which was finished in 1775. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 7pm, Sunday from 9am to 4pm. Admission is $3 (£1.50).

To take a break, sit at one of the outdoor cafes under the stone arches along Avenida Madero. (No need really to over-exert one's self. Besides, sitting at a table having a little coffee or beer and watching the passersby is a favorite activity of the locals. In anthropology, you would be doing what is called "participant observation.")

After having your fill of participant observation (or beer or coffee), head west on Madero for a block and you'll come to calle Nigromante. On the right, you'll see the College of San Nicolás de Hidalgo, a beautiful colonial building that claims to house the oldest university in the New World. Founded in Pátzcuaro in 1540 by Vasco de Quiroga, the university moved to Morelia in 1580 and became the University of Michoacán in 1917. On the other corner is another of Morelia's oldest religious structures, the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, built by the Jesuits. It's now a picturesque library. Through a doorway to the right of the church is the state's tourist information office. Attached to the church is the former convent, now called the Palacio Clavijero. To see the graceful arches and rose-colored stone of its broad interior courtyard (the most photographed in Morelia), turn down Nigromante and follow it to the main entrance. The former convent now houses government offices. Once you've seen the palacio, continue down the street to the little park. Facing the park is the Conservatorio de las Rosas, a former Dominican convent. It became a music school in 1785 and is now the home of the internationally acclaimed Morelia Boys Choir. The choir practices on weekday afternoons. If you would like to attend a concert, ask for information inside.

Cater-cornered from the conservatory, at the junction of Santiago Tapia and Guillermo Prieto, is the Museo del Estado (tel. 443/313-0629). Exhibits include a display on the archaeology and history of the area and a 19th-century apothecary shop. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 2pm and 4 to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 2pm and 4 to 7pm. Admission is free. Look for, or ask about, concerts and other goings-on.

To visit another interesting museum, continue east on Santiago Tapia 2 blocks to Benito Juárez and turn north (left). The Museo de Arte Colonial, Av. Benito Juárez 240 (tel. 443/313-9260), is a colonial mansion that houses a large collection of religious art from the 16th to the 18th centuries. One section displays Christ figures made from the paste of corn stalks. This was a pre-Columbian artistic technique among the Purépecha, and the missionaries soon had their Indian converts using it to create the Christ figures and saints that adorn many churches in Mexico. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 2pm and 5 to 8pm. Admission is free.

Just around the corner from this museum (turn right as you exit) is the Plaza del Carmen. Across the plaza, behind a heavy wrought-iron fence, is the church and former convent of El Carmen. The entrance to the convent is on the opposite side of the block from the church, on Morelos Norte. The building is home to the state's Instituto Michoacano de Cultura (tel. 443/313-1320), which has made this a comfortable and utilitarian destination; you can examine the calendars posted at the entrance to see whether a concert, film, or exhibition is happening during your stay. You can also view the large stone courtyard built in the style often used by the Carmelites. Around the courtyard are a museum of native masks, a large bookstore, and a gallery. Entrance is free. The institute is open daily from 10am to 8pm.

Free-Market Forces

Morelia's city market is 5 blocks south of San Francisco in a plain, warehouse-like structure. If you're a veteran market shopper, you'll like this one. It's especially rich in regional manufactures, such as sombreros and huaraches, and has a good produce section where you can stock up on different kinds of dried chiles if you like cooking Mexican food.

To get to the market, go downhill from San Francisco Plaza along Calle Vasco de Quiroga. Just before you get there you will see a little plaza and the Templo de las Capuchinas. It's a precious little baroque church with a gilt retablo (altarpiece) inside. Unfortunately, it is often closed; the best time to try is from 8 to 9am and from 5 to 6pm, when the priest opens the church for Mass. Behind the church is the market.

Other Attractions

On another day you might enjoy exploring Avenida Madero, east from the cathedral. After a couple of blocks, you'll reach the Templo de las Monjas (Nuns' Temple), a lovely old church with a unique twin facade and B-shaped floor plan. Beside it is the massive Palacio Federal, which houses, among many other official bureaus, the post and telegraph offices. Continue on and you'll reach the colonial aqueduct. The graceful arches of the aqueduct stretch from here about a kilometer (less than a mile) eastward. A stone walkway, lined with trees and long stone benches, starts from one of the arches in front of the fountain. This is La Calzada Fray Antonio de San Miguel. In the 1940s, this walkway was used to shoot some scenes for a Hollywood movie, with Tyrone Power, called Captains from Castile. The Calzada leads to the church of San Diego, the most ornate church in Morelia, San Diego is also known as El Santuario de Guadalupe. It has a colorful interior done in neo-baroque, the product of a remodeling job done a century ago. In early December, food stands fill the entire plaza in front of the church, and a festival is held to celebrate the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Dec 12).

The distance from the cathedral to San Diego is about 1.6km (1 mile). You can take a taxi back or, if you still feel like walking, return by crossing the large plaza with the statue of Morelos on horseback. Go under the aqueduct, and enter Morelia's equivalent of Central Park, known as El Bosque (The Woods). Continue west and work your way back to the center of town. If you get turned around here, note that if you're walking on level ground, you're parallel to or heading toward Madero; if you're walking downhill, you're heading away from it.