Museo Casa Natal de Morelos

José María Morelos, the independence leader after whom the city is named, was born in a house on this corner of Calle Corregidora and García Obeso on 30 September 1765. The original building dated from the 17th century and was a simple baroque house with plain white walls. In 1888 it was rebuilt, and what stands today is a single-storey house with a neoclassical stone front and two interior gardens. It was declared a national monument in 1930, and in 1965, for the 200th anniversary of Morelos's birth, it opened as a museum. It is run by the Michoacán state culture department and is a separate institution from the INAH museum in the house Morelos later bought, about 150 m to the southeast.

The permanent display on the life and work of Morelos is arranged in several rooms: one on his origins and early life, one on his part in the War of Independence, and one on his trial and execution in 1815. Among the documents on show is a facsimile of the Sentimientos de la Nación, his political programme for the new nation, with his signature and a famous phrase in which he calls the place where he was born the garden of New Spain. The museum also holds documents and personal objects linked to Morelos, and a specialist library of more than 23,000 volumes on his life and on the history of Mexico.

The house is a lively small cultural centre as well as a museum. Its audiovisual room hosts film club screenings and concerts, and guided tours can be booked for schools, tourists and other groups. The gardens are quiet places to sit, with a view of the back of the Templo de San Agustín, and the house is less than 200 m south of the cathedral, which makes it an easy stop between the Plaza de Armas and the Casa de Morelos.