Hotel Villa Jacaranda

Church at Atotonilco

by searcey

Outside of San Miguel on the road to Dolores Hidalgo is the town of Atotonilco. The World Monuments Fund named this historic and artistically important pilgrimage church to its list of "100 most endangered monuments." With a grant from American Express and the State of Guanajuato in 1996 a Mexican non-profit organization began work on the restoration of the Chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary. The church is sometimes referred to as the "Sistine Chapel of the Americas" and almost every square inch of the walls and ceilings inside the Sanctuary is covered with fresco paintings in a riotous outpouring of Mexican folk art. The murals also portray angels, archangels, saints, and demons amidst decorations of fanciful flowers and fruits. It is truly worth a visit.

http://smaartes.com/mexico/ato.html This is a good website with pictures and the story.

Arrival of wealthy Spaniards and Creoles

by karenincalifornia

In the 17th century, San Miguel saw the arrival of wealthy Spaniards (peninsulares) and Creoles from other parts of the American continent. With their money, they built elaborate baroque style homes, permanently distinguishing San Miguel from other towns in the region.

By 1750, the town had earned the reputation of being one of the most important and prosperous centers of New Spain.

Class divisions nevertheless existed. Indigenous people and those of mixed race lived in adobe huts in the outskirts of town ("los barrios").

THE HEART OF MEXICO

by madamx

Unfortunately, I no longer have time to build a page for each of my travels. If you have any questions regarding San Miguel, I would be happy to help, please feel free to e-mail me here on VT.

If you would like to see pictures of San Miguel, please go to my Flickr gallery

San Miguel de Allende

by Schatz

"The Cathedral"

This gothic style cathedral is just beautiful. The amazing thing about it it's that it was designed and built by an architect who was never in Europe. He learned the features of the european gothic cathedral just from drawings and postal cards. the he used all of his knowledge to give his hometown a wonderful gothic cathedral.