Querétaro
Patrimonio Mundial / Centro HistóRico · Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro
Queretaro is the city where Mexican independence was plotted and where the Second Empire was shot. The conspiracy of 1810 met here in the house of the corregidor, and when it was discovered his wife, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, locked in her own room, got word out in time for Hidalgo to ring the bell at dawn on 16 September. Fifty-seven years later Maximilian of Habsburg was executed on a hill at the edge of town, the Constitution of 1917 was signed in the Teatro de la Republica, and UNESCO inscribed the centre in 1996 for the plan itself, where the rigid Spanish grid meets the winding streets of the Otomi quarters. Over it all walk the 74 arches of a 1730s aqueduct. Today Queretaro is also a wealthy, tidy industrial city with a lively food and wine scene, clean pedestrian streets and a calmer feel than Mexico City, 215 kilometres south, so it works as a base or a stopover on the road to San Miguel de Allende.
Plaza de Armas, Centro Histórico, Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro, 76000, Mexico
An open city - free, no gate. Museums generally keep daytime hours and close on Mondays; INAH Sunday free admission applies to Mexican nationals and residents only. ⚠ THE PALACIO DE GOBIERNO COURTYARD - the Casa de la Corregidora, where the 1810 conspiracy was betrayed - IS FREE AND OPEN during business hours. The Teatro de la República can usually be visited when no performance is scheduled. ⚠ THE AQUEDUCT IS FLOODLIT AT NIGHT and the Mirador de los Arcos is a ten-minute walk from the centre. ⚠ WINE ROUTE CELLARS AT EZEQUIEL MONTES AND TEQUISQUIAPAN KEEP DAYTIME HOURS AND CLOSE EARLY - book tastings ahead, and do not drive yourself. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.