Querétaro Travel Guide

Queretaro's Plaza de Armas, formally the Plaza de la Independencia, is the oldest public space in a city laid out in 1537 and inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1996. The square is calm and well proportioned, ringed by colonial arcades, eighteenth-century mansions and tall Indian laurel trees that throw enough shade to make this the coolest place to rest on a Mexican highland afternoon. The Palacio de Gobierno on the north side, also called the Casa de la Corregidora, was originally the Casas Reales y Carceles, the Royal Houses and Jails. Its name comes from its most famous occupant, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, wife of the corregidor and a heroine of the War of Independence. In September 1810 the conspiracy was uncovered here and she sent the warning out from the palace that set the war alight. She is buried in the Mausoleum of the Corregidora. The central fountain was completed in 1843 in honour of the Marquis of Villa del Villar del Aguila, who financed the city's aqueduct. The local nickname Dog Square needs some explaining: the original design set four metal dogs at the corners of the square base, spitting water from their mouths, beneath a ten-metre column topped by a copper statue. In 1867 a cannonball during the siege knocked the statue off, and in 1892 the monument was rebuilt without the column and without the dogs, the marquis recarved in pink limestone. So what stands in the square today is the pink-stone marquis, not the dogs. The name Dog Square comes from four metal dogs that have been gone for more than a century. Early evenings and weekends are the liveliest, with the fountain lit after dark; the palace is generally open 07:00-21:00 and free, with murals of the independence figures in its courtyard. Every September 15 the Grito de Independencia is proclaimed from its steps to packed crowds. Along the Andador Libertad pedestrian street you can walk from the plaza to the aqueduct, built 1726-1738 with 74 or 75 arches, and the Santa Cruz convent of 1660-1698, now the regional museum, making a half-day old-town circuit. November to April brings mild dry-season afternoons; from May the afternoon rains set in, so carry an umbrella.

The Museo Regional de Queretaro occupies the former San Francisco convent in the historic centre and is the fullest account of the city and central Mexico's past. Galleries move from pre-Hispanic archaeology and colonial religious art to independence and the imperial period, with holdings tied to the 1810 conspiracy and Queretaro's part in it especially significant. The cloister, stone courtyard and upper arcades are exhibits in their own right, preserving the scale and rhythm of colonial architecture.

Hotel Mesón de la Merced occupies a seventeenth-century mansion in the historic centre of Querétaro, once a mesón — an inn for mule trains and travellers. Thick stone walls, two courtyards and two tiers of arcades survive, with timber beams and iron grilles reinforced rather than replaced. It is not on the standard sightseeing list, yet it explains the city's origins as a staging post on the road between Mexico City and the northern silver mines, when such inns lined the main street offering stables, storerooms and beds. The lobby still shows the old full-height doorway, and a restaurant opens onto one courtyard.

The Museo de Arte de Querétaro is set in the former Convent of San Francisco and is known for Viceregal religious painting and sculpture plus richly decorated cloister murals — an important collection of colonial Mexican art. The courtyard and cloisters are exhibits in themselves, where Querétaro's art and religious history meet.

Casa de la Corregidora stands beside Jardín Zenea in the historic centre of Querétaro and marks the most decisive address of the Mexican War of Independence. Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, wife of the corregidor, lived here, and the conspirators met under cover of her literary gatherings in 1810. When the plot was betrayed she sent word through the night to San Miguel, warning Father Hidalgo to rise early. The house now serves as a ceremonial building for the state government with no permanent display, but the façade, iron grilles and courtyard survive, all visible from the square.