Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares

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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 jewelry, copperware, ceramics and guitars from Paracho, and an entire room filled with votivas and retablos – votives and crudely rendered devotional paintings offering thanks to God for saving the creator from illness or accident.

The museum is housed in the former Colegio de San Nicolás, founded by Quiroga in 1540 as the first university in the Americas. The building was constructed on pre-Hispanic stone foundations, some of which can be seen in the patio behind the museum. Here you'll also see an all-wood decorated troje (traditional granary).


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