San Luis Potosi Historic Center

San Luis Potosi grew rich on the silver of Real de Catorce and Cerro de San Pedro, and it spent the money on stone. The historic centre - inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that carried silver north - is built largely in a warm pink cantera that turns rose at sunset, and it is organized around a sequence of plazas rather than one: the Plaza de Armas with cathedral and government palace, the Plaza del Carmen with the Templo del Carmen's astonishing carved facade and camarin, the Plaza de los Fundadores, San Francisco's church and garden, and the Plaza de Aranzazu behind it. The Teatro de la Paz and the Centro de las Artes - a converted penitentiary - carry the cultural programme, while the Museo Nacional de la Mascara displays Mexican dance masks by the thousand and the Museo Federico Silva does contemporary sculpture. Pedestrianized lanes link them all, filling in the evening with families, enchiladas potosinas and street musicians. It is one of Mexico's most underrated colonial centres.

What you actually see

• Templo del Carmen - the churrigueresque facade and gilded camarin.
• The plaza sequence - seven squares linked by pedestrian lanes.
• Teatro de la Paz - the belle-epoque hall on the Carmen square.
• The mask museum - Mexican dance masks in depth.

When to go

October to May for mild days; evenings when the pink stone warms and the lanes fill. Holy Week brings the famous Procesion del Silencio through the centre.

Honest expectations

The city sits at 1,860 metres and gets genuinely cold on winter nights. Museums close Mondays. Beyond the centre, San Luis is an industrial capital - stay and walk in the historic core.

Nearby

Real de Catorce's ghost-mining town lies three hours north; the Huasteca's green country begins three hours east.