Layout of Aguascalientes
The city stands on an open plain at about 1,880 m, on the Río San Pedro, with the Sierra Fría rising to the west and the Sierra del Laurel to the south. Its name comes from the hot springs that fed the colonial settlement founded in 1575 as a way station on the silver road between Zacatecas and Mexico City. The centro histórico is compact and flat, arranged around the Plaza de la Patria: the Catedral Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción on the west side, the Palacio de Gobierno opposite in red quarry stone with a two-storey arcaded courtyard, and the Teatro Morelos on the north, where the Convention of Aguascalientes sat in October 1914 and split the revolution between Villa and Carranza.
Aguascalientes is planned in rings, which makes it easy to read on a map. Avenida Convención de 1914 loops closest to the old centre, divided into Norte, Sur, Oriente and Poniente sections; Avenida Aguascalientes forms a second, wider ring; and a periférico runs outside that, carrying through traffic around the built-up area. Cutting across them, Avenida López Mateos is the main east–west artery and the line by which Federal Highway 45 passes through the city. Almost every address in the metropolitan area, which spills into the neighbouring municipalities of Jesús María and San Francisco de los Romo, is described by which ring and which quadrant it sits in.
Lic. Jesús Terán Peredo International Airport (AGU) is about 22 km south of the centre on Highway 45, a 25-minute drive, with domestic services to Mexico City, Monterrey, Tijuana and Cancún and a small number of direct routes into Texas and California. The Central de Autobuses sits roughly 3 km south-east of Plaza de la Patria on the inner ring, and is the busier gateway in practice: first-class buses run to Zacatecas, León, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosí and Mexico City through most of the day.
Distances from Aguascalientes
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aguascalientes airport (AGU) | 22 | 25 min | Taxi, Hwy 45 |
| Calvillo | 55 | 50 min | Hwy 70 west |
| León | 120 | 1 h 20 | Hwy 45D toll |
| Zacatecas | 130 | 1 h 30 | Hwy 45D toll |
| Guanajuato | 165 | 2 h | Hwy 45D, then Hwy 110 |
| San Luis Potosí | 170 | 2 h | Hwy 70 east |
| San Miguel de Allende | 210 | 2 h 30 | Hwy 45D, then Hwy 51 |
| Guadalajara | 250 | 3 h | Hwy 45D, Hwy 80D |
| Querétaro | 265 | 3 h | Hwy 45D, Hwy 57D |
| Mexico City | 500 | 5 h 30 | Hwy 45D, Hwy 57D |
Districts and the country around
West of the centre, the Barrio de San Marcos is built around a walled garden and the 18th-century Templo de San Marcos; for three weeks each spring it becomes the site of the Feria Nacional de San Marcos, held since 1828 and the largest annual fair in the country. North-west, the Barrio de la Estación grew around the railway workshops the Ferrocarril Central Mexicano opened in the 1890s, which for decades were the biggest employer in the state; the surviving sheds now hold a railway museum and cultural spaces. South of the centre, the Barrio del Encino keeps the low colonial houses around the Templo del Encino and the museum devoted to José Guadalupe Posada, the engraver born here in 1852 whose calavera prints became the visual language of the Day of the Dead.
Modern Aguascalientes is an assembly town. Nissan opened its first plant here in 1982 and a second in 2013, and the COMPAS joint venture with Daimler added a third in 2018; the cluster of suppliers around them, spread along Highway 45 towards San Francisco de los Romo, makes vehicle manufacturing the largest share of the state economy. The city is also the headquarters of INEGI, the national statistics institute, which is why census and geographic data for the whole of Mexico is compiled here.
Beyond the metropolitan area the state is small enough to cross in an afternoon. Calvillo, 55 km west, is a guava-growing town at the foot of the Sierra Fría. Real de Asientos, 60 km north-east, is a silver settlement with underground tunnels cut under the parish church. At San José de Gracia, 55 km north, the Presa Plutarco Elías Calles reservoir holds an island carrying the 25 m Cristo Roto statue, reached by boat. The Bajío region map and the road map show how these routes join the wider network.
Questions about Aguascalientes
Where is Aguascalientes on the map of Mexico?
In north-central Mexico, on the northern edge of the Bajío at about 1,880 m. It is roughly 500 km north-west of Mexico City, 130 km south of Zacatecas and 120 km north-west of León, and it is the capital of the second-smallest state in the country.
When is the Feria de San Marcos?
Three weeks straddling April and May, centred on the saint's day of 25 April. It has been held since 1828, making it the oldest fair in Mexico, and it fills the Jardín de San Marcos and the fairground west of the centre with bullfights, palenque concerts and a rodeo.
How far is Aguascalientes from Guadalajara?
About 250 km by road, roughly 3 hours on the toll route through Encarnación de Díaz and Lagos de Moreno. There is no scheduled flight between the two; the bus runs hourly.
Is Aguascalientes safe to visit?
Aguascalientes has consistently recorded one of the lowest homicide rates of any Mexican state, and the centre, the fairground and the San Marcos district are busy at night during the feria. Conditions change, so check the current US State Department advisory for the state before you travel.