La Huasteca Potosina
The important Huastec ceremonial center of Tamtoc flourished from AD 700 to 1500. Today it’s one of the few maintained Huastec sites. The cleared part of…
Must-see attractions in Northern Central Highlands
Museo de la Independencia Nacional
Dolores Hidalgo
Although this museum has few relics, it has plenty of information on the independence movement. The exhibition spans seven rooms and charts the appalling…
Zacatecas
Zacatecas' former mint (Mexico's second-biggest in the 19th century) now houses the wonderful Museo Zacatecano. Spread over a number of rooms, this…
Zacatecas
Built in the late 18th century for a mine owner, the building's unusual name ('Bad Night Palace') is accounted for by a local legend that its former owner…
San Miguel de Allende
This large 1736 complex, originally the home of the aristocratic De La Canal family, was later used as a Carmelite convent, eventually becoming an art and…
Querétaro
This lovely old functioning theater, complete with impressive chandeliers, was where a tribunal met in 1867 to decide the fate of Emperor Maximilian…
Aguascalientes State
The well-restored 18th-century baroque cathedral, on the plaza's west side, is more magnificent inside than out. Over the altar at the east end of the…
Dolores Hidalgo
Miguel Hidalgo lived in this house when he was Dolores' parish priest. It was from here, in the early hours of September 16, 1810, that Hidalgo, Ignacio…
San Luis Potosí
The altar of the 17th- and 18th-century Templo de San Francisco was remodeled in the 20th century, but the sacristy (the priest's dressing room), reached…
Zacatecas
The Museo Francisco Goitia displays work by several 20th-century Zacatecan artists, including some evocative paintings of indigenous people by Goitia …
Aguascalientes State
This history museum was designed by Refugio Reyes as a family home and features a small chapel. Its exhibits cover everything from the big bang and the…
La Huasteca Potosina
While this might be a lovely set of three cascades and swimming holes on the edge of Tamasopo village, it's also a very crowded (weekends can see swarms…
Museo Iconográfico del Quijote
Guanajuato
This surprisingly interesting museum is worth half-hour of your time. Every exhibit relates to Spain's Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cervantes' classic…
Northern Central Highlands
Completed in 1754, this attractive church is the smallest of the Sierra Gorda Missions, but has a delightful setting in the rather charming village of…
Aguascalientes State
This church contains a black statue of Jesus that some believe is growing. When it reaches an adjacent column, a worldwide calamity is anticipated…
San Miguel de Allende
With its blue and yellow tiled dome and a big shell carved above its entrance, this church is just east of San Felipe Neri. The facade is early…
Misión Santa María del Agua de Landa
Northern Central Highlands
Built between 1760 and 1768, the Mision Sanata María was the last of the five Sierra Gorda missions to be built and today dominates the small town of…
Misión Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Tancoyol
Northern Central Highlands
This was the second of the five missions to be built and was completed in 1767 by Juan Ramos de Lora. It is devoted to Our Lady of the Light, a sculpture…
San Miguel de Allende
Once a college founded in the mid-18th century by the San Felipe Neri order, the Colegio de Sales has regained its educational status; it currently houses…
Northern Central Highlands
The wide and attractive Plaza Miguel Hidalgo is surrounded by portales (arcades) filled with bustling cafes and handicrafts stores, and overlooked by the…
Zacatecas
With a bubbly stone facade, the tarnished pink Templo de Santo Domingo, in a plazuela of the same name, is in a baroque style, with fine gilded altars and…
La Huasteca Potosina
This stunning 38m-high waterfall is for viewing only, though it’s superaccessible to those who are guests of Hotel Salto del Meco as breakfast is served…
Northern Central Highlands
This museum in the town's former sweet factory allows you to wander through kitchens of old, see exhibits about the history of Mexico, candy production…
San Luis Potosí State
This fine old 19th-century church has an interesting interior of once-glorious but now very faded and decaying frescoes. Outside is the cemetery which is…
San Luis Potosí
Inside the Templo de San José, facing the Alameda's south side, lies the image of El Señor de los Trabajos, a Christ-like figure attracting pilgrims from…
Casa Museo Interactivo Ramón Lopez Velarde
Northern Central Highlands
One of Mexico's favorite poets, Ramón Lopez Velarde, was born in this house on June 15, 1888 and lived here for the first eight years or so of his life…
Querétaro
Inside the ex-convent and old prison that held the deposed Emperor Maximilian, the 11-room Museo de la Ciudad has some good alternating contemporary art…
Querétaro
This is a finely restored 17th-century home with an impressive collection of 18th- and 19th-century furniture and decorations, which veer between the…
Misión San Francisco del Valle de Tilaco
Northern Central Highlands
Dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, this fine mission church in the village of Tilaco was built between 1754 and 1762 and has an impressive façade and bell…
Zacatecas
Palacio de Gobierno on the plaza's east side was built in the 18th century for a colonial family. In the turret of its main staircase is a mural of the…
San Luis Potosí
The least pretty of the plazas, Plaza de los Fundadores (Founders' Plaza) is where the city was born. On the north side is a large building constructed in…
Querétaro
The 18th-century cathedral features both baroque and neoclassical styles, with an emphasis on straight lines and few curves; it's said that the first Mass…
San Luis Potosí
This museum is housed in the city's former post office. These days the brilliantly transformed space houses temporary art exhibitions that change every…
Querétaro
Plaza de la Corregidora is dominated by the Monumento a la Corregidora, a 1910 statue of doña Josefa Ortiz bearing the flame of freedom. It's a rather…
Querétaro
This impressive church fronts Jardín Zenea. Pretty colored tiles on the dome were brought from Spain in 1540, around the time construction of the church…
San Luis Potosí
Beside the Templo del Carmen, this museum has a large collection of paintings and artifacts from the Spanish vice-regency. More of interest might be its…
Templo de la Tercera Orden & Templo del Sagrado Corazón
San Luis Potosí
The small Templo de la Tercera Orden, built in 1694 and restored in 1960, and Templo del Sagrado Corazón (1728−31), both formerly part of the Franciscan…
Querétaro
The Mausoleo de la Corregidora, opposite the mirador, is the final resting place of local independence heroes doña Josefa Ortiz and her husband, Miguel…
Querétaro
From this viewpoint there's a fine view of 'Los Arcos,' Querétaro's emblematic 1.28km-long aqueduct, with 74 towering sandstone arches built between 1726…
San Luis Potosí
The Alameda Juan Sarabia marks the eastern boundary of the downtown area. It used to be the vegetable garden of the monastery attached to the Templo del…
