Guanajuato
Capital of the State of Guanajuato, the City of Guanajuato (population about 55,000) is located in the heart of the Mexican republic.
Its name means “mountainous place for frogs” in the Tarascan Indian language. Nestled in a narrow canyon between two huge mountains, Guanajuato is a singular and perfectly preserved colonial city.
Its origins in Mexico's central highlands date back as early as 1552 when Spanish explorers struck silver in the neighboring Sierra Madre mountains; it quickly became the richest city in Mexico and for centuries Guanajuato flourished as the silver capital of the world, producing more than a third of the world's silver by the turn of the 18 th century.
The city's heritage of wealth is reflected in the elaborate mansions and baroque churches that give Guanajuato the most purely Spanish/European feeling of all the Mexican colonial cities. |
Most visitors find Guanajuato's true charm in the amazing web of winding streets and alleys, called callejones, that twist through the core of the city. Colonial buildings crowded together and perch one atop the other, lining the alleyways, their balconies almost touching.
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