Barrio de San Pedro

San Pedro is one of the nine barrios Uruapan was founded with, on the west side of the city by the Cupatitzio river, about a 15-minute walk from the centre. In April 2023 federal tourism secretary Miguel Torruco and governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla presented it with the Barrio Mágico title, the first in Michoacán.

The Franciscan friar Juan de San Miguel laid out Uruapan around 1533 as nine barrios, each with its own chapel, patron saint and Indigenous council, and each was given different trades. San Pedro is known as the birthplace of maque incrustado, the inlaid lacquer technique the city became famous for. Its chapel of San Pedro Apóstol dates from the 16th century, built of stone and adobe under a tiled roof, with a carved stone arch decorated with shells and Franciscan emblems and a stone plaque dated 1643.

The barrio's other treasure is the old Fábrica de San Pedro, a textile mill built between 1894 and 1897, when Uruapan was at its industrial peak. It made linen, wool, cotton and silk cloth sold in Mexico City; it still holds its carding and spinning machinery and now works as a cultural centre with art, design and fashion exhibitions, workshops, a shop and a café. The Barranca del Cupatitzio National Park, about 450 hectares, begins right next to the barrio, and the Iurhekua interactive water museum is nearby.

San Pedro honours its patron on 29 June, as each Uruapan barrio does with its own saint, with dances such as Los Negritos. At Easter it joins the aguadoras ritual on Holy Saturday, when women from all nine barrios walk out in embroidered dresses and rebozos carrying clay water jars decorated with bread, flowers, figurines and sweets.