Durango Historic Center

Durango was founded in 1563 as a mining and administrative seat on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and its historic centre - part of that UNESCO-listed route - is one of northern Mexico's best-preserved: a grid of stone streets around the Plaza de Armas, dominated by the Basilica Menor cathedral, an eighteenth-century baroque pile with twin towers and a facade of carved cantera. Around it stand the Palacio de Gobierno's frescoed courtyard, the Casa del Conde de Suchil with its ornate portal, the Teatro Ricardo Castro, and dozens of mansions built on silver money and now filled with museums - cinema, archaeology, regional history, and the excellent Museo de Arqueologia Ganot-Peschard. A pedestrianized Calle Constitucion carries the evening promenade, and a cable car runs from the Cerro del Calvario to the Cerro de los Remedios for the panorama. Durango's other identity, film country, is signposted everywhere: hundreds of westerns were shot in the surrounding desert, and the city keeps the memory in its cinema museum and the film-set parks outside town.

What you actually see

• The cathedral - twin-towered baroque on the Plaza de Armas.
• The mansions - silver-era portals and courtyards as museums.
• The teleferico - cable car to the hilltop panorama.
• The film heritage - western-movie history in the city museums.

When to go

October to April for mild days; evenings for the pedestrian street and lit facades. Summer afternoons are hot and the plaza empties.

Honest expectations

Durango is a working regional capital - the centre is handsome but compact, and a day covers it. Museums close Mondays. The cable car stops in high wind.

Nearby

The Paseo del Viejo Oeste film set is twenty minutes out; the Sierra Madre road to Mazatlan begins here with the Espinazo del Diablo.