Must-see attractions in Inland Michoacán

In the eastern-most corner of Michoacán, straddling the border of México state, lies the incredible 563-sq-km Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a…

The upstart Volcán Paricutín (2800m) might be less than 80 years old, but clambering up the volcanic scree slopes to its summit and looking out across…

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…

South of the lake and just west of Hwy 120 lies this enormous religious compound built partly with stones from the Purépecha yácatas (temples) taken from…

Highlights among the well-curated exhibits of this impressive folk-art museum include a room set up as a typical Michoacán kitchen, cases of gorgeous…

This 18th-century palace, originally a seminary and now housing Michoacán state government offices, has a simple baroque facade. Inside, its soaring…

From 1660 to 1767, the Palacio Clavijero, with its magnificent minimalist main patio, imposing colonnades and pink stonework, was home to the Jesuit…

Built on a hill atop a pre-Hispanic ceremonial site, this cathedral-cum-pilgrimage site was intended to be the centerpiece of Vasco de Quiroga’s utopia…

Stroll through luscious avocado groves to the beautiful ruins of this ceremonial site called Tinganio in Purépecha, which predates the Purépechan empire…

This incomparable urban park is just 15 minutes west of the main plaza, but it’s another world. Tropical and subtropical foliage is thick and aflutter…

Pátzcuaro’s leafy main square – more commonly known as 'Plaza Grande' – is Mexico’s largest plaza after the Zócalo in Mexico City and the only one in the…

House in the former Franciscan Monastery of St Anne, this fascinating museum showcases Purépecha culture and history and documents the arrival of the…

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…

Some 12km south of central Uruapan, the wild Río Cupatitzio makes its last act count. It pumps hard over the vine-covered, 30m-high red-rock cliffs and…

This site comprises an impressive group of five semicircular reconstructed temples known as yácatas, which are all that remain of the mighty Purépecha…

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…

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…

This cool, rambling colonial edifice was built as a Dominican convent in the 1740s. (Before that, it was the site of the Hospital de Santa Martha, founded…

On the northern side of Plaza Chica and occupying the cavernous 16th-century Templo de San Agustín, this stunning public library has a barrel-vaulted…

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…