The Brown Town of Morelia – The Perennial Pilgrim

Morelia is a fascinating colonial city. It’s been a Spanish city since 1530 with a unique style of buildings that have been built using a pinkish-grey stone that starts to appear more of a light brown color with age. City ordances decree that all new construction in the city center must perfectly match the old. So everything kind of looks the same. It’s a really nice stopover for a few days between Mexico City and Guadalajara, but I’d imagine the homogeneity would get old after a while.

A smaller side street with a little diversity in color.

Like many of Mexico’s colonial cities, Morelia is surrounded with lush green hills.

Even the American chain restaurants conform to the required style.

Two blocks outside the historical disctrict Morelia looks like a typical Mexico city. This could be anywhere in the country.

There’s a beautiful aqueduct built in the late 1700s that was used to bring water in from nearby mountain springs.

The Morelia Cathedral’s spires are supposedly the tallest of any church in Mexico.

It’s a beautiful building from the outside

And inside it’s possibly the prettiest church I’ve seen in Mexico.

The former Convento del Carmen is now Morelia’s Casa de la Cultura with a theatre, cafe and space for temporary exhibits and classes.

It’s a nice, comfortable apartment for a few days.

And it has a very low key Mexican entranceway.

I took a day trip out to the small town of Tzintzuntzan to check out its ruins and their view of the surrounding Lake Patzcuaro. Unfortunately, the site was closed because of Covid restrictions. However the bus and collectivo rides out there were beautiful and it was a very relaxing day.