Morelia’s largest park, named after the last Aztec emperor (r 1520–21), is an attractive affair frequented by families for its shady trees, outdoor sculptures and playground. On its grounds are two small museums. Housed in a 19th-century building, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce has temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. The quirky Museo de Historia Natural, on the eastern side of the park, displays stuffed, dissected and skeletal animals and human fetuses.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.85 MILES
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…
Antiguo Convento Franciscano de Santa Ana
26.47 MILES
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…
0.83 MILES
This 18th-century palace, originally a seminary and now housing Michoacán state government offices, has a simple baroque facade. Inside, its soaring…
1.05 MILES
From 1660 to 1767, the Palacio Clavijero, with its magnificent minimalist main patio, imposing colonnades and pink stonework, was home to the Jesuit…
Museo Antiguo Convento Franciscano de Santa Ana
26.47 MILES
House in the former Franciscan Monastery of St Anne, this fascinating museum showcases Purépecha culture and history and documents the arrival of the…
0.96 MILES
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…
Tzintzuntzan Archaeological Site
26.08 MILES
This site comprises an impressive group of five semicircular reconstructed temples known as yácatas, which are all that remain of the mighty Purépecha…
Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe
0.25 MILES
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…
Nearby Morelia attractions
0.08 MILES
This strange and very small museum on the eastern side of the Bosque Cuauhtémoc park, displays fossils (including a mammoth's tusk) stuffed, dissected and…
2. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce
0.14 MILES
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 …
3. Estatua Ecuestre al Patriota Morelos
0.18 MILES
Plaza Morelos, an irregular, conspicuously vacant plaza southeast of the center, surrounds this majestic statue of Morelos on horseback, sculpted by…
0.18 MILES
This irregular, conspicuously vacant plaza southeast of the center surrounds the Estatua Ecuestre al Patriota Morelos, a majestic statue of Morelos on…
0.23 MILES
Morelia’s impressively preserved aqueduct north runs for just over 2km along (appropriately enough) Avenida Acueducto and then curves around Plaza…
0.23 MILES
Built as a monastery in 1761, the Ex Convento de San Diego now houses the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás…
7. Santuario de la Virgen de Guadalupe
0.25 MILES
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…
0.37 MILES
The centerpiece of Plaza Villalongín, this iconic fountain erupts from a fruit tray held by three beautiful, topless Tarascan (now called Purépecha) women…