Etymology

The word Guanajuato comes from the Tarascan "Quanashuato," which means "Mountainous place of frogs." Over time, the indigenous word was altered, changing first into "Cuanaxuato," later into "Guanaxuato," and finally "Guanajuato."

Location

Guanajuato is located in a canyon between large mountains, 230 miles north of Mexico City. It is an extremely beautiful colonial city that was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988.

The area around the city of Guanajuato was found to be rich in silver, and so a mining town flourished that became the modern day Guanajuato.

History

Guanajuato is without a doubt one of the loveliest cities in Mexico. Founded in 1559, its name means “place of the frogs”. The main points of attraction in Guanajuato are found in the centre and can easily be visited on foot.

Founded by the Spaniards at the beginning of the 16th century, the city of Guanajuato, capital of the state of the same name, situated in the centre of Mexico, soon became the silver-mining centre of the world.


Guanajuato, a city named "Cultural Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO in 1988, for the magnificent colonial buildings that make up its architecture, has an atmosphere that takes us back to the past. Cultural manifestations surge out of its theatres, churches and museums, squares, markets and side streets. Hundred-year-old buildings where heroic battles were fought and immortal romances live on in legend. Balconies and facades that saw the passage of figures like Hidalgo, Allende, Juárez, Maximilian and Porfirio Díaz. In the pre-Hispanic period the territory now occupied by the city of Guanajuato was chiefly inhabited by nomadic tribes generically known as Chichimecas (Pames, Guamares, Guanaxuas, etc.,) who lived by hunting and gathering.

Miners

Born of the mines, Guanajuato has always lived in a kind of symbiosis with them: the organisation of the streets, most of all, the colourful “underground streets”, the building of sumptuous churches such as the one belonging to the Jesuits and the Valenciana, among the most beautiful examples of baroque architecture in Latin America, the construction of numerous dams and hydraulic installations, the drilling of mineshafts, the most striking of which, La Boca del Infierno, goes 600 metres underground, are intimately bound up with its industrial history.

Weather

In Guanajuato there are three types of climate: semi-dry, temperate and semi-warm.

Semi-arid Climate
This is also called steppe climate and is so-called because evaporation exceeds precipitation. It is associated with plant communities of the desert scrub and “crasicaule” type (prickly pear, thistle, etc.). It is found in the north and east of the state, characterising about 40% of the total area. The municipalities of San Felipe, San Diego de la Unión, San Luis de la Paz, part of Dolores Hidalgo and San José de Iturbide, have this type of climate.

Temperate climate
In general this climate is intermediate in terms of temperature (mesothermal). The plant types which commonly grow in it are oak forests, oak-pine forests, pine forests, chaparral and grazing land. It appears in six variants, covering 20% of the total area and unevenly distributed. The least humid climate is found chiefly in the southeast, in the municipalities of Apaseo, Jerécuaro and Yuriria.

Frosts and hailstorms
In terms of the three areas of the state defined by the climate type, frosts and hailstorms occur in the following distribution:

Frosts:: In semi-arid climates the frequency of frosts is 10 to 50 days a year. In the extreme northeast the rate is about 10 days during the months of November and December, while for the rest of the zone it is from 20 to 40 days a year during the period from November to February, with the highest incidence in January. The frequency of frosts in temperate climates is from 10 to 40 days during the months of November, December, January and February, with the highest incidence in January. In the south this frequency varies from 10 to 30 days; for semi-arid climates frosts go down to 10 days and in some areas of the centre and southeast its incidence is negligible.

Photo Gallery

León, Guanajuato

The city of León is known as the Shoe Capital of the World because here we find a concentration of a large number of factories producing shoes and leather articles of high quality, whose reputation has gone beyond the country’s borders.

Celaya, Guanajuato

Celaya is known as “The Golden Gate of El Bajío” due to its importance in the fields of industry, agriculture, cattle raising and commerce.

Also is known for it's producing of delicious "cajetas".

Dolores, Hidalgo

The most important date in the history of this city, and of the nation itself, was the early morning of September 16th, 1810, when the priest Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave the Cry for Independence (“el grito”) that signalled the start of the revolution against Spanish domination. It is for this reason that the city holds the title of the Birthplace of National Independence by government decree.


During your visit to this beautiful colonial city, you should not fail to try the delicious “nieves”, sorbets, which you will find in the most exotic flavours, tequila, shrimp, sweet corn, avocado, chili and mantecado, among others. Dolores Hidalgo is not just the Birthplace of Independence, it is also the point of departure for those who wish to do the route of Independence.

Photo Gallery

Diego Rivera Museum

A classic building of the 19th century where Diego Rivera was born and spent his childhood. The building, in the neoclassical style, was fitted as a museum to exhibit original furniture of the 19th century and a collection of paintings by the maestro, Rivera.

The museum presents temporary exhibitions of different works of the plastic arts, and cultural events take place Tuesday through Sunday from 10.00 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. and from 4.00 p.m. to 6.30.


The museum has acquired the house next door and in late 2008 began a project to expand exhibition space into the new house. The museum will remain open during the construction, which won't be completed until late 2009 or early 2010.

Juarez Theatre

Considered one of the most beautiful theaters in Mexico, the Teatro Juárez was inaugurated in 1903 by General Porfirio Diaz. Its portico is in the Roman Doric style, and among its many charms is an art nouveau foyer.



Located in the heart of Guanajuato. Construction was begun in 1872, funded by General Florencio Antillón, who contracted the services of engineer José Noriega

The Teatro Juarez is the main stage of the International Cervantino Festival, and the site of an enormous variety of artistic activity, from theater, ballet and music to painting and photography exhibitions.

The Mummies

Guanajuato is also famous for its mummies, discovered in 1865 when work began to enlarge the city’s cemetery. It was eventually concluded that a combination of a soil rich in minerals and quite dry air made it possible for a corpse to be mummified in the Guanajuato earth in only five years. Today the Mummy Museum exhibits grotesque corpses recovered from that old cemetery.

This museum contains a collection of mummified corpses encased in glass caskets. There are about one hundred mummies on show and all are very well preserved due to the mineral salts in the soil where they were found.