San Miguel de Allende

While walking through the streets of San Miguel de Allende, radiant city of beautiful constructions and multiple archaeological vestiges, time seems to stop. Such is the atmosphere that surrounds this city located in the state of Guanajuato, inviting its visitors to the grandiose opportunity of going back to a rich historical past and, at the same time, appreciate the intensity with which flourish the many cultural manifestations that makes of the destination one of the most interesting and splendid places of the Mexican Republic.

The tolteca power resounded on the soil where centuries later would remain as inheritors of their warrior glory the copuces, guamares and guachichiles, nomad organization groups known as chichimecas, that by the XIII Century of our era occupied those lands for their ulterior exploitation, although always dependent on nature‘s vicissitudes.

The agriculture, key for the development of a society of a more elevated organization, was not to manifest itself until the arrival for the Spanish in the times of colonization. By 1555 the King Don Luis de Velazco ordered the foundation of a village that would be located halfway between the town of Zacatecas, recently founded then, and Mexico City, capital of New Spain. This village would be of great commercial profit, being the passage of the flow of all sorts of merchandise, above all silver proceeding from the north of México.

It was the village of San Miguel, known later as San Miguel el Grande, which would become a place of noticeable importance due to its location, to its communication and commerce with Zacatecas or Guanajuato, but above all due to a growing industry that would bear great outcomes in years to come: the textile industry. In the reveille of the XIX Century, being a cradling city of thinkers and people willing to listen to new forms of philosophical thought, San Miguel el Grande, nowadays Allende, would develop in a great way the liberating spirit that inspired thousands of fighters that joined the struggle for a new nation under the voice of Ignacio Allende, Aldama, Lanzagorta and others.

Taking a promenade through the streets of San Miguel de Allende awakens a peculiar enchantment: the Plaza or the Jardín Principal, known in the XVI and XVII Centuries as Plaza Parroquial, having in its center a kiosk built in the 50s, protected by big trees and attracting the passersby that abandon themselves to the beauty of their surroundings. The parroquia of San Miguel Arcangel, colossal in its dimensions and admirable because of its architectural decorations engraved on stone, reverberating at the ringing out of the bells the entire region. By 1730 the last of the three towers showing off the forms of refined barroque art would be finished, but later on, by 1880, thanks to the iniciative of Bishop of León, Father Diez de Sollano y Dávalos, the construction of the parochial tower would begin. Don Serafino Gutierrez, the person in charge of the construction site would have a great inspiration based on gothic European constructions, and owing to the recollection of postcards proceeding from the old continent, designed such a unique tower, that up to this day brings to San Miguel de Allende the greatest fame. To its left, the San Rafael Temple, edified originally in 1564 to be established as a parish, also known as la Santa Escuela de Cristo in the XVIII Century, and which would be the first building built in the Plaza. In its tower an enormous clock watches over the passing of time, while flocks of pigeons take flight in sudden motions.

At the south-western corner of the Plaza the house that saw the birth of the independence leader Ignacio Allende on the 21st of January of 1769, is an example of the preserved up to this day architecture from the XVIII Century. And endless is the number of monuments and buildings that enclose its history and display to the eyes of visitors the sensation of going back in time, palpitating in the cozy atmosphere of such an extraordinary city open to worldwide tourism. Jewel of the state of Guanajuato open to culture, generator of always vibrant multicolor art is San Miguel de Allende. An unforgettable city!