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Inland Michoacán
Pre-Hispanic traditions and colonial-era architecture meet in Michoacán. The state is home to three of Mexico’s coolest under-the-radar cities: the adobe-and-cobblestone town of Pátzcuaro, where Purépecha women sell fruit and tamales in the shadow of 16th-century churches; the lush agricultural city of Uruapan, gateway to the mythic Paricutín volcano; and the vibrant and cultured colonial city of Morelia, with an ancient cathedral and aqueduct built from rosy pink stone.
Michoacán is also gaining renown as a crafts capital: the Purépecha artisans of the state’s Cordillera Neovolcánica highlands create wonderful masks, pottery, straw art and stringed instruments – all on display at the annual Tianguis Artesanal de Uruapan craft fair. Rich in natural treasures, Michoacán has one of the world’s truly unmissable sights: the annual butterfly migration to the rugged Reserva Mariposa Monarca (Monarch Butterfly Reserve), where millions of mating monarchs cover the grass and trees in a shimmering carpet.
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Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Inland Michoacán.
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Morelia Cathedral
Morelia’s cathedral, considered by many to be the country's most beautiful, dominates the city center, where it flanks rather than faces the central plaza. It took almost a century to build (1660−1744), which explains its potpourri of styles: the twin 70m-high bell towers, for instance, have classical Herreresque bases, baroque midsections and multicolumned neoclassical tops. It's particularly impressive when lit up for the Encendido de Catedral. Much of the baroque reliefs inside were replaced in the 19th century with neoclassical work. Fortunately, one of the highlights was preserved: a sculpture of the crucified Christ called the Señor de la Sacristía in a chapel to the left of the main altar. It is made from pasta de caña (a paste made from the heart of the cornstalk) and is topped with a gold crown gifted to the church by the Spanish King Felipe II in the 16th century. The organ counts 4600 pipes – the second largest pipe organ in Mexico (the first is in Zamora, Michoacán); occasional organ recitals take place here – a beautiful time to be in the cathedral.
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Palacio de Gobierno
This 18th-century palace, originally a seminary and now housing Michoacán state government offices, has a simple baroque facade. Inside, its soaring historical murals (1960) in the stairwell and 2nd-floor hallways are the magnum opus of Pátzcuaro-born artist Alfredo Zalce (1908–2003), and arguably the city's best. Enter from Calle Juárez.
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Centro Cultural Clavijero
From 1660 to 1767, the Palacio Clavijero, with its magnificent minimalist main patio, imposing colonnades and pink stonework, was home to the Jesuit school of St Francis Xavier. Today the enormous building houses a cultural center with exhibition spaces showing off contemporary art, photography and other creative media.
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Museo Regional Michoacano
Housed in a dozen rooms of a renovated late-18th-century baroque palace, this museum contains an impressive array of pre-Hispanic artifacts, including a reconstructed open tomb from El Opeño and a carved stone coyote from Ihuatzio as well as colonial art and relics. Signage in Spanish only. There are also several spectacular murals by Alfredo Zalce on the stairway, including Cuauhtémoc y la Historia (Cuauhtémoc and History) and Los Pueblos del Mundo contra la Guerra Atómica (Peoples of the World Against Atomic War), both 1951. Don't miss the surreal mural La Inquisición (The Inquisition; Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish; 1935) on the wall of the back courtyard on the 1st floor. The most valuable work is Traslado de las Monjas Dominicas a Su Nuevo Convento (The Transfer of Dominican Nuns to their New Convent) depicting nuns moving into their new home at the Templo de las Monjas in 1738.
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Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe
A standard baroque structure on the outside dating from 1708 to 1716, this hushed sanctuary to Mexico's patron is a different story within. Get ready for a glistening profusion of pink, red and gold, gold, gold! The interior decorations date from 1915. Springing out of all this elaboration is a series of large paintings depicting the conversion of the indigenous peoples to Christianity. They show scenes such as sacrificial victims about to be executed before being saved by the honest, God-fearing folk of Spain. Beside the church, the much less splashy Ex Convento de San Diego was built in 1761 as a monastery and now houses the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo.
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Colegio de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
This building is now part of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, which produced such scholars as Morelos, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and José Sixto Verduzco. Upstairs, the Sala de Melchor Ocampo is a memorial to another Mexican hero, a reformer-governor of Michoacán (open 8am to 2pm Monday to Friday). Preserved inside is his library and a copy of the document he signed donating it to the college, just before he was executed by a conservative firing squad in 1861. The enormous, 72-sq-meter mural Paisaje y economía de Michoacán (Landscape and Economy of Michoacán) on the upper floor was painted by in 1935 by Marion Greenwood, the first foreign woman to paint a public mural in Mexico.
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Museo Casa de Morelos
This museum, arguably Morelia's best on the subject of José María Morelos y Pavón, resides in the former house of the independence hero, who bought the Spanish-style mansion for his sister in 1801. Well-laid-out, multimedia displays have good information panels in both Spanish and English and cover Morelos' life, military campaigns and the trajectory of the independence movement thereafter. Don't miss his study, cell-like bedroom and macabre máscara mortuoria (death mask). Other highlights include the wonderful old kitchen contemporary with the house and the antique coaches in the courtyard.
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Museo de Arte Colonial
This ambitious museum contains five rooms chock-a-block with religious paintings and sculptures, including more than 100 depictions of the crucified Christ, some quite graphic. Highlights include a small statue of Jesus wearing a skirt in room 3 and scale models of Columbus' three ships – the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria – in room 4. Check out the ancient streetside windows in room 5. Signage is excellent, though in Spanish only.
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Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce
Modern-art fans might find something interesting at this art museum in Morelia's city park named for the Michoacano artist and muralist Alfredo Zalce (1908–2003). The lovely late-19th-century building contains a dozen different spaces that host temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and photography. Outside, the sculpture garden is well worth wandering. Check out the scale-model of the museum on the 1st floor.