Layout of Morelia
The city was founded on 18 May 1541 as Valladolid, on a ridge above the Guayangareo valley, and renamed in 1828 for José María Morelos, the independence leader born here in 1765. Its centro histórico is faced almost uniformly in one material, cantera rosa — the pink tuff quarried in the hills around the valley — which is what gives the city its colour. UNESCO listed the centre in 1991 on the strength of roughly 1,100 catalogued buildings inside 390 blocks.
Avenida Francisco I. Madero is the east–west spine and almost everything sits on it or a block away. The cathedral, built between 1660 and 1744, stands halfway along with two baroque towers of about 70 m — for a long period the tallest in New Spain — and divides the Plaza de Armas from the Plaza Melchor Ocampo. West along Madero are the Palacio Clavijero, a Jesuit college of 1660 now holding exhibition halls and the state archive, and the Colegio de San Nicolás, moved here from Pátzcuaro in 1580 and still part of the Universidad Michoacana. East, Madero becomes Avenida Acueducto and runs into the aqueduct itself.
The aqueduct is the city's landmark: 253 arches over about 1.7 km, rebuilt in its present form between 1785 and 1788 and in use until 1910. Where it meets the Fuente de las Tarascas the Calzada Fray Antonio de San Miguel, a wide tree-lined walk of 1732, leads south-east to the Santuario de Guadalupe, whose interior was redecorated in coloured plasterwork in 1915. The Bosque Cuauhtémoc, the city's main park, lies immediately south of the calzada, and the Cerro de Santa María rises behind it with the standard view back over the roofs.
The Central de Autobuses is about 6 km north-west of the centre near the Periférico, with first-class departures to Mexico City every half hour or so. General Francisco J. Mújica International (MLM) lies about 27 km north-east at Álvaro Obregón, on the road to Salamanca; it handles domestic flights plus seasonal services to Chicago, Los Angeles and other US cities with large Michoacán populations. Highway 15D, the Mexico City–Guadalajara toll road, passes north of the city.
Distances from Morelia
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morelia airport (MLM) | 27 | 30 min | Hwy 43 north-east |
| Pátzcuaro | 60 | 1 h | Hwy 14/120, frequent buses |
| Uruapan | 120 | 1 h 30 | Hwy 14D |
| Zitácuaro | 150 | 2 h | Hwy 15 |
| El Rosario monarch sanctuary | 165 | 3 h | Hwy 15 via Zitácuaro and Angangueo |
| Guanajuato | 165 | 2 h 15 | Hwy 43/45D via Salamanca |
| Querétaro | 200 | 2 h 30 | Hwy 15D/45D via Maravatío |
| Toluca | 220 | 2 h 45 | Hwy 15D |
| Mexico City | 300 | 4 h | Hwy 15D, buses to Terminal Poniente |
| Guadalajara | 300 | 4 h | Hwy 15D via Zamora |
Pátzcuaro, the lakes and the butterflies
Pátzcuaro, 60 km south-west and 2,140 m up, was the Purépecha capital before the conquest and the first seat of the bishopric under Vasco de Quiroga, who moved it to Valladolid in 1580. Its Plaza Vasco de Quiroga is one of the largest colonial squares in Mexico and the town keeps the whitewashed walls and red tiles that Morelia does not. Lake Pátzcuaro, immediately north, holds the island of Janitzio, where the Night of the Dead vigil on 1–2 November is the best-known observance of its kind in the country. Around the lake, Tzintzuntzan preserves five round Purépecha platforms called yácatas, the capital's ceremonial centre until 1522, and Santa Clara del Cobre has hammered copper since Quiroga assigned each village a craft in the 1530s.
East of the city the ground rises into the oyamel fir forests of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, inscribed by UNESCO in 2008. Several hundred million monarchs from Canada and the eastern United States overwinter in a handful of colonies above 3,000 m; El Rosario and Sierra Chincua, both near Angangueo about 165 km from Morelia, are the two sanctuaries open to visitors, from roughly mid-November to March. West, Uruapan at 120 km is the avocado capital and the base for Paricutín, the volcano that rose out of a maize field on 20 February 1943 and buried the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro, whose church tower still stands above the lava. North of Morelia, Lake Cuitzeo is the second-largest lake in Mexico by surface area and is crossed by a 4 km causeway carrying Highway 43. The Michoacán state map, the volcanoes map and the El Bajío map set out the wider ground.
Questions about Morelia
Where is Morelia on the map of Mexico?
In the Guayangareo valley of north-central Michoacán at 19.70° N, 101.19° W, 1,920 m above sea level and about 300 km west of Mexico City on Highway 15D. It is the capital of Michoacán.
Why is Morelia pink?
Almost every building in the old centre is faced in cantera rosa, a pink volcanic tuff quarried locally since the sixteenth century. The uniform stone across some 1,100 listed buildings is the main reason UNESCO inscribed the centre in 1991.
How long is the Morelia aqueduct?
The surviving section runs about 1.7 km along Avenida Acueducto and has 253 arches, the tallest a little over 9 m. It was rebuilt between 1785 and 1788 under Bishop Fray Antonio de San Miguel and carried water into the city until 1910.
How far is Morelia from the monarch butterfly reserve?
El Rosario, the most visited sanctuary in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, is about 165 km east of Morelia near Angangueo, roughly three hours by road via Zitácuaro. The colonies are open to visitors from about mid-November to March.
Is Morelia safe to visit?
The historic centre, the university district and the road to Pátzcuaro carry heavy visitor traffic, but Michoacán as a whole sits at the top of the US State Department's advisory scale, with a small number of named exceptions that have included Morelia and the Morelia–Pátzcuaro corridor. Check the current State Department advisory, which is revised as conditions change.