Santiago Maravatío

Santiago Maravatío was founded on 25 July 1540, the feast of St James, and the name follows from that: the friar Alonso de Alvarado placed the town under the saint, and Maravatío is a Purépecha word usually translated as "precious place". It grew at the foot of a set of mesas beside two springs of warm, sulphurous water that fed a canal about five metres wide and a marsh. People from neighbouring villages came to bathe for rheumatism. The springs ran dry between December 1997 and January 1998, so there is no spa to visit today.

What there is to see in town dates mostly from the 19th century on. Friar Nicolás de Villanueva began the church in 1885 and set up the Colegio del Espíritu Santo here, which started classes on 18 September 1878 and ran for about ten years; its ruins remain. The tower and the stone high altar with Ionic-Corinthian columns were blessed on 12 March 1905, the dome followed around 1912 and the tower clock was installed in April 1970. In front of the churchyard is a garden with a fountain and bandstand, and a statue of St James stands at the roundabout on the boulevard.

The big fiesta is 25 July, with a second on 12 December for the Virgin of Guadalupe. Both feature the town's own palote dance, which began in 1908 after the festival stewards failed to hire another village's troupe and formed one of their own, with a violin, guitar, drums and rattles. On Thursdays and Sundays a street market sets up on the esplanade by the garden, which is the best time to eat something and shop for the day.