Guanajuato offers lots of atmosphere. It's great for strolling and wandering, a marvelous place to contemplate Mexico as it once was and, in many ways, still is.

Things to Do

The best way to explore this small, provincial city is literally to lose yourself in it. Around every corner is a new surprise. Reminiscent of Segovia, Guanajuato's maze of corkscrew lanes, winding around hillsides, blossom into picturesque little plazas bedecked with mustard yellow, tan, or pink houses or fade into alleys or staircases. Guanajuato is made for walking. Each tiny side street seems to lead to pocket gardens, quaint houses, and monuments. You'll find a church on just about every plaza. Mine owners, seeking to outdo each other, built these temples to God as a way of seeking the esteem of their peers and the blessing of the Church. You'll find Guanajuato feels more like a medieval village than a colonial town.

Life here centers on the Jardín de la Unión (Union Garden), Guanajuato's zócalo, a small elegant triangular-shaped park ringed with cozy outdoor cafés, wrought-iron benches, and old Indian laurel trees. If you're there on a Tuesday or Thursday evening at 7 P.M., or on Sunday at noon, sit at one of the cafés and sip a cool drink while listening to the band playing in the Victorian gazebo.

On one side stands the Teatro Juárez, an opera house in Neoclassical style begun in 1873 and inaugurated in 1903, during the opulent era of the Porfiriato, with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aïda. Moorish decoration surrounds you as you enter the red, blue, and gold Belle Epoque interior, complete with a Parisian crystal chandelier. Admission is $2. (Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 A.M. to 1:45 P.M. and 5:00 to 7:45 P.M.; 473-732-0183.)

Next door rises the elegant Franciscan Iglesia de la San Diego, built in 1633. A flood almost destroyed it and, in the rebuilding during the eighteenth century, workers added a churrigueresque façade. And if you look up, you'll see the imposing thirty-three-foot El Monumento del Pípila, a rose-stone sculpture of the city's hero holding a torch. Go behind the theater and take the funicular up to the monument for a panoramic view of the city. (Tuesdays to Saturdays, 9 A.M. to 10 P.M., Sundays, 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.)

From here the Avenida Benito Juárez will lead you to the Plaza de la Paz (Peace Square). The Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato, a beautiful seventeenth-century baroque church painted a striking yellow, contains the oldest piece of Christian art in Mexico — a jewel-studded wooden statue of the Virgen de la Guanajuato, dating from the eighteenth century. Admission is $2 (open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.). The imposing white stone stairway leading to the main building of the Universario de Guanajuato, constructed in 1732 by the Jesuits, begins behind the plaza.

Also along the Plaza de la Paz is the Mansión del Conde de Rul y Valenciana, the Neoclassical mansion of the La Valencia Mine owner, the Conde de Rul y Valenciana (Count of Rul and Valencia). Built by Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras at the end of the eighteenth century, the former mansion is now home to the Corte Suprema de la Justicia (High Court of Justice). On either side of the Avenida Juárez are a number of picturesque plazuelas. Off the Plazuela de los Angeles opens the Callejón del Beso (Kissing Lane), so called because its narrowness — only two feet wide — allowed a couple to kiss from windows on each side.

Museums

The city has many fine museums. Most are open from 10 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. Sunday, with an admission of $2 to $3 per adult, half price for children. Try to see at least some of the following during your visit:

• Museo Ex-hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera: Once the home of the Conde de Valenciana (Count of Valencia), founder of the rich La Valenciana mine, it shows colonial-era artifacts inside while seventeen gardens in different styles, ranging from Italian to Arabian to Chinese with footpaths, statuary, and fountains, await you outside (473-732-0619).

• Museo del Diego Rivera: The birthplace of noted Mexican artist Diego Rivera now shows original nineteenth-century furniture on the first floor and 100 early paintings and mural sketches by Rivera on the second (473-732-1197).

• Museo Inconográfico del Quijote: Housed in a renovated colonial mansion close to the Jardín de la Union, this museum features over 600 works of art, including some by Salvador Dalí and Picasso, collected by Spaniard Eulalio Ferrer Rodriguez, that glorify the characters from the literary works of Miguel Cervantes. A bronze statue of Cervantes stands guard outside (473-732-6721).

• Museo de las Momias (Mummy Museum): In this, one of Mexico's most macabre museums, the dearly departed of Guanajuato remain on display for all to see. Glass cases contain nightmarish mummified bodies from the turn of the century with gruesome facial expressions. Admission is $5. (Open 9 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., 473-732-0639.)

• Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato (Municipal Museum): The Casa de los Marqueses San Juan de Rayas, the former seventeenth-century home of the Marqués San Juan de Rayas, owner of the Raya silver mine, has a churrigueresque façade with murals by José Chávez Morado. It now contains Chávez's priceless collection of religious and civil art, illustrating the development of folk art in Guanajuato (473-732-2990).

• Museo Regional la Alhóndiga de Granaditas: The Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a plain building erected between 1798 and 1803 and originally used as a granary, then as a prison and then a fort, is famous for its role as the site of the first battle of the Mexican fight for independence. Admission is $3, with children under thirteen free (473-732-1112).

For the Kids

You can take a guided tour of the Observatorio de la Astronomia (Astronomical Observatory) operated by the Astronomy Department of the University of Guanajuato (473-732-9607).

Visit Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende

Rent a car and drive down Mexico's La Ruta Independencia (Route of Independence) to the small town of Dolores Hidalgo, named for the freedom-fighting priest, Father Hidalgo, who began the fight for independence, and further on to San Miguel de Allende. You can make this a long day trip or an overnight, or book a guided tour at your hotel.

Three miles from Guanajuato on the Dolores Hidalgo road is the Iglesia de San Ceytano (Church of La Valenciana), built in 1788 by the first Conde de Valenciana (Count of Valencia), Antonio Obregón y Alcocer, owner of the famous La Valenciana silver mine. As you enter the side doorway to the church from the garden, you'll see an elaborately shaped and decorated scallop-shell and a statue of San José. A highlight of the interior is the doorway to the sacristy, with its carved stone drapery above a Moorish arch, decorated with bands of elegant ornamentation in tezontle stone (open 9 A.M. to 6 P.M.).

You'll come to the Bocamina de Valenciana (Valencia Silver Mine) not far from the church. Discovered in 1766 by Antonio Obregón y Alcocer, a miner who became the first Conde de Valenciana, it became the most productive mine in the world, employing up to 3,300 miners in shafts penetrating 1,650 feet. Admission is $1. (Open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., 473-232-0580.)

Dolores Hidalgo, known as the Cradle of National Independence, is the first stop on Mexico's Independence trail that traces the course of the revolution against Spain. It was from Dolores Hidalgo that the Grito de Dolores (shout for independence) echoed across the nation early on September 16, 1810 — signaling the start of the Mexican Revolution.

Father Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, the parochial priest who proclaimed the grito, summoned his parishoners earlier than usual, then gave the famous call to rebellion, initiating the uprising against the Spanish Crown. Today, Hidalgo is Mexico's most revered hero, and the town of Dolores Hidalgo, renamed in his honor in 1824, has almost become the place of pilgrimage for Mexicans. Visit the Casa Hidalgo, the house where he lived from 1804 until 1810, which displays many of his personal effects, as well as documents from that era (418-182-0171).

Thirty miles beyond Dolores Hidalgo, you'll come to San Miguel de Allende. Its bright colors and languorous atmosphere make it the most typically “Mexican” of the colonial cities. Smaller than most, it's one of the few towns in Mexico to be designated as a national monument, enabling it to preserve its character as a colonial town almost intact.

The charm of the town, its mild year-round climate, and its superb, clear light, have attracted many artists and writers. Thus, it has become a center of intellectual and artistic life, with a number of schools teaching painting, sculpture, music, literature, and drama.

If you look beyond the box-shaped pruned trees around the zócalo, you'll see the birthplace of Ignacio de Allende, with its alfé-nique decoration. Step inside to see the exhibits of the Museo de la Casa de Allende, featuring colonial-era furnishings and documents from the fight for independence (473-152-2499). A bit beyond stands the Convento de la Concepción (Convent of the Conception), the largest Mexican convent, begun in the middle of the eighteenth century but not completed until the end of the nineteenth. The magnificent dome of the church, also designed by Gutiérrez, was the final piece. Today the former convent houses an art school, Escuela de Bellas Artes (473-152-0289). Farther beyond the convent stands La Casa del Mayorazgo de la Canal, the former home of Don Manuel Tomás de la Canal. Built in 1735, today it houses the Instituto Allende, the second of San Miguel's important art schools (473-152-0190; www.intituto-allende.edu.com.mx). Notice its spacious patio and unique arches. Beyond lies the shaded green expanse of the Parque Benito Juárez, originally called the Paseo del Chorro (The Water Spring). Local Indian women wash clothes by hand in the spring-fed tubs of the public lavandería (laundry).

To see a superb example of Mexican churrigueresque architecture and decoration, visit the Santa Casa de Loreto, a copy of the original House of the Virgin in Loreto, Italy, built in 1736 by Manuel Tomás de la Canal, then the town's richest citizen. Be sure to step into the Camarín, an octagonal room containing six altars, one Neoclassical and five baroque, with exquisite retablos of carved and gilded ornamentation.

One of the most important sites along La Ruta Independencía is the nearby sixteenth-century baroque Oratorio de Atotonilco (Augustinian monastery church of Atotonilco), the first stopping place of the independence army after it left Dolores. Its six chapels contain statues, folk murals, and impressive seventeenth-and eighteenth-century paintings.