Sights in Guadalajara
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Tonalá
This dusty, bustling suburb is about 13km southeast of downtown Guadalajara and home to even more artisans. You can feel this town beginning to take Tlaquepaque's lead, with a few airy, inviting showrooms and cafés opening around town, but it remains happily rough around the edges. It's fun to roam through the dark, dusty stores and workshops. Anything you can buy in Tlaquepaque, you can find here for much less, which is what attracts wholesale buyers from all over the world.
On Thursday and Sunday, Tonalá bursts into a huge street market that sprouts on Av Tonaltecas and crawls through dozens of streets and alleys and takes hours to explore. This is where wholesale…
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Paraninfo
West of the city center, where Avenidas Juárez and Federalismo meet, is shady Parque Revolución, which has become a haven for pierced skaters. Three blocks further west is the Paraninfo, one of the main buildings of the Universidad de Guadalajara (UDG).
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Cathedral
Guadalajara’s twin–towered cathedral is the city’s most beloved and conspicuous landmark. Begun in 1558 and consecrated in 1618, it’s almost as old as the city itself. And it’s magnificent. Time it right and you’ll see light filter through stained glass renderings of the Last Supper and hear a working pipe organ rumble sweetly from the rafters. The interior includes Gothic vaults, massive Tuscany-style gold-leaf pillars and 11 richly decorated altars that were given to Guadalajara by King Fernando VII of Spain (1814–33). Its crucifix is one of the most subtle and tasteful in Mexico (Jesus isn’t white!). The glass case nearest the north entrance is an extremely popular…
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Museo Regional de Guadalajara
This must-see museum has an eclectic collection covering the history and prehistory of western Mexico. Displays in the ground-floor natural history section include the skeleton of a woolly mammoth. The archaeological section has some well-preserved figurines, along with many fine artifacts of ceramic, silver, gold and other materials.
Upstairs are galleries of colonial paintings, a history gallery covering the area since the Spanish conquest, and an ethnography section with displays about indigenous life in Jalisco. The museum building, the former seminary of San José, is a late-17th-century baroque structure with two stories of arcades and several courtyards holding…
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Basílica de Zapopan
Zapopan’s pride and joy, the Basílica de Zapopan, built in 1730, is home to Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, a petite statue of the Virgin visited by pilgrims year-round. The faithful get extreme during the Fiestas de Octubre, when thousands of kneeling old women crawl behind as the statue is carried here from Guadalajara’s central cathedral. The kneeling pilgrims then make the final trek up the basilica’s aisle to pray for favors at her altar. The Virgin receives a new car each year for the procession, but the engine is never turned on (thus remaining ‘virginal’). It’s hauled by men with ropes.
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Palacio de Gobierno
The impressive Palacio de Gobierno, which houses state government offices, was finished in 1774. It’s a neo-classical building accented by more than a few Churrigueresque decorations and an enormous 1937 mural of Miguel Hidalgo looming over an interior stairway. Hidalgo brandishes a torch in one fist while the masses struggle at his feet. Another Orozco mural in the ex-Congreso (former Congress Hall) upstairs depicts Hidalgo, Benito Juárez and other historical luminaries.
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Parque Agua Azul
This green oasis, a large, leafy park about 20 blocks south of the city center, is a nice place to rehab from too much urbanity. There are benches and lawns to lounge upon and jogging trails aplenty, so bring a good book or some running shoes. And check out the Orchid House – the orchids look their best in October, November, April and May. Bus 60 (or any marked ‘Agua Azul’) heading south on Calzada Independencia will drop you here from the city center.
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Plaza de los Mariachis
Tucked behind the Templo Santa Eduviges near the intersection of Av Juarez and Calz Insurgentes, just south of Mercado San Juan de Dios, is the birthplace of mariachi music. By day it's just a narrow walking street, flanked by charming old buildings and dotted with a few plastic tables and chairs and the odd uniformed mariachi man chatting on a cell phone. At night it can get lively, when patrons swill beer and listen to bands play requests for about around $100 per song.
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Rotonda de los Jaliscenses Ilustres
Welcome to Jalisco's hall of fame. The plaza on the north side of the cathedral is ringed by 20 bronze sculptures of the state's favorite writers, architects, revolutionaries and a composer. Some of them are actually buried beneath the Rotonda de los Jaliscenses Ilustres, the round-pillared monument in the center. Before the macho city establishment added a woman to the mix, the rotunda was 'de los Hombres Ilustres.'
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Plaza Tapatía
The fabulously wide pedestrian Plaza Tapatía sprawls for more than 500m east from Teatro Degollado. Stroll the plaza on Sundays and you will flow in a sea of locals who shop at low-end crafts markets, snack (from both street vendors and cafés), watch street performers and rest on the short walls of gurgling fountains. The plaza dead-ends beautifully at the Instituto Cultural de Cabañas.
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Museo de Arte de Zapopan
One block east of the southeast corner of Plaza de las Américas, Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ) is Guadalajara’s best modern-art museum. Four sleek minimalist galleries hold temporary exhibits, which have included works by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and a whimsical showing of Anthony Browne prints that saw the top floor covered with turf, sticks, stones and sand.
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Plaza Guadalajara
Plaza Guadalajara is shaded by dozens of laurel trees, has great cathedral views, a few fine cafés and fun people-watching. On its north side is the Palacio Municipal (City Hall), which was built between 1949 and 1952 but looks ancient. Above its interior stairway is a dark mural by Gabriel Flores depicting the founding of Guadalajara.
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Lienzo Charros de Jalisco
Charreadas (rodeos) are held at noon most Sundays in this ring behind Parque Agua Azul. Charros (cowboys) come from all over Jalisco and Mexico to wrestle and rope cows. Escaramuza (female stunt riding) teams perform daring side- saddle displays, often showing more riding skill than the charros !
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Plaza de la Liberación
East of the cathedral, the Plaza de la Liberación was a 1980s urban planner's dream project and two whole blocks of colonial buildings were eviscerated for his concrete slab. But it does gush with fountains and overflow with herds of students, solitary suits on mobiles and love-drunk couples kissing in the sun.
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Palacio de Justicia
Across the street from the Palacio Legislativo, to the east is the Palacio de Justicia. It was built in 1588 and began life as Guadalajara's first nunnery. Duck inside to the interior stairwell and check out the 1965 mural by Guillermo Chávez depicting legendary Mexican lawmakers, including Benito Juárez.
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Zoológico Guadalajara
The Zoológico Guadalajara is a large, relatively pleasant place with aviaries, a reptile house and a children’s petting zoo. Animals include lions, tigers, hippos and flamingos. There’s a good view of the Barranca de Oblatos, an impressive 670m-deep canyon, at the north end.
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Templo Expiatorio
Across the street from Museo de las Artes is the 1897 Gothic Templo Expiatorio, accented by enormous stone columns, 15m-high mosaic stained-glass windows and a kaleidoscopic steeple. At 9am, noon and 6pm, a door in the clock tower opens and the 12 apostles march right out.
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Museo Regional de la Cerámica
The Museo Regional de la Cerámica is set in a great old adobe building with stone arches and mature trees in the courtyard. It has a nice collection that exhibits the varied styles and clays used in Jalisco and Michoacán. Explanations are in English and Spanish.
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Galería Jorge Martínez
A block north of the northeast corner of the Plaza de la Liberación, Galería Jorge Martínez is an interesting modern and conceptual art gallery in the colonial center, adjacent to, and benefitting, Guadalajara’s top art school, Artes Plásticas, operated by UDG.
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Museo Huichol
To the right of the Basílica de Zapopan, the Museo Huichol has a small, slightly kitschy display of artifacts from the Huichol people, an indigenous group known for their peyote rituals and bright-colored yarn art.
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Palacio Municipal
On the north side of Plaza Guadalajara is the Palacio Municipal, which was built between 1949 and 1952 but looks ancient. Above its interior stairway is a dark mural by Gabriel Flores depicting the founding of Guadalajara.
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Museo de las Artes
In the back of the Paraninfo is the Museo de las Artes, which houses temporary exhibitions that will scratch your modernist itch once you’ve overdosed on arte clásico.
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Palacio Legislativo
On the north side of the Plaza de la Liberación, next to the Museo Regional, is the Palacio Legislativo. Distinguished by thick stone columns in its interior courtyard, this is where the state congress meets.
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Casa-Museo José Clemente Orozco
During the 1940s, the great tapatío painter and muralist, José Clemente Orozco (1883−1949), lived and worked in this house, which now displays various sketches and other artifacts.
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Templo Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes
Closer to the city center is the ornate Templo Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was built in 1650; inside are several large paintings, crystal chandeliers and more gold leaf.
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