San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende rose rich on the colonial silver route, but its icon is a late addition: the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, whose pink neo-Gothic towers were raised in the late nineteenth century by the self-taught local mason Zeferino Gutierrez, working - so the story goes - from images of European cathedrals. The result is one of Mexico's most photographed churches, glowing over El Jardin plaza where mariachis and balloon sellers work the evenings. Behind it spreads a UNESCO-listed town (inscribed in 2008 together with the frescoed sanctuary of Atotonilco nearby) of cobbled lanes, carved doorways and flowering courtyards, colonised since the mid-twentieth century by artists and a large international community - galleries, rooftop terraces and craft shops now fill the old fabric. The Fabrica La Aurora, a textile mill turned art complex, anchors the creative scene.

History

Before the Spanish came, the site was the Chichimeca village of Itzcuinapan, and the first Spanish settlement, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, soon met fierce resistance as the colonists tried to enslave local people for the silver mines; in 1551 the Guamare, a Chichimeca group, attacked Spanish posts and settlements, and the first site was given up. In 1555 Juan de San Miguel's successor, Bernardo Cossin, and the indigenous leader Fernando de Tapia refounded it as a mission and military outpost a mile to the east, by two springs that supplied all the town's water until the 1970s. With silver found at Guanajuato and Zacatecas and the road to Mexico City running through it, San Miguel became a key military and trading post in the forty-year Chichimeca War, then grew rich supplying travellers and mining camps and making textiles, and most of its great houses and churches date from its peak in the mid-18th century. The town takes its name from the friar Juan de San Miguel and from Ignacio Allende, a hero of independence born on its main square, it nearly became a ghost town after an influenza pandemic early in the 20th century, and part of the old town is a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, San Miguel de Allende).

What you'll find

• The Parroquia - the pink fantasy towers above El Jardin.
• El Jardin evenings - mariachis and promenades under clipped laurels.
• The doorway lanes - carved portals, courtyards and rooftop views.
• Atotonilco sanctuary - the mural-covered church that shares the UNESCO listing.

When to go

October to April brings dry, sunny highland days and cool nights at 1,900 metres. Semana Santa and the September patron-saint fiestas are spectacular and packed; summer afternoons bring brief rains.

Practical notes

This is Mexico's most internationalised small town - English is everywhere and prices run well above regional norms. The cobbles and steep lanes punish thin soles, and weekends fill with visitors from the capital. It is beautiful rather than undiscovered - come for polish, not grit.

Nearby

The Atotonilco sanctuary, the canyons of the Guanajuato highlands and the UNESCO city of Guanajuato itself.

Key facts