Museo y Archivo Histórico Casa de Morelos

This stone house on Avenida Morelos Sur, a few minutes' walk south of the cathedral, belonged to José María Morelos, the priest who became one of the main leaders of Mexico's War of Independence. Its ground floor was finished around 1758, and Morelos bought it in August 1801; an upper floor was added in the following years. He spent little time here, and after he joined the insurgency royalist authorities confiscated the house in March 1811 and ordered it partly destroyed. Morelos was captured and shot in December 1815. In 1822 the new independent government recognised the rights of his children Antonia and Nicolás, and his descendants lived in the house until 1910, when it was sold to the federal government.

The house was declared a national monument in 1933, the archive of the bishopric was moved here in 1932, and since 1939 the building has been in the care of INAH, the national institute of anthropology and history. It was restored again in 2010, when the present displays opened. The museum has nine permanent galleries around its courtyards. On the ground floor, rooms recreate daily life in late-18th-century Valladolid and the old diocese of Michoacán, with two carriages in the main patio, a small traditional kitchen and the old stables. Upstairs the story moves to 1808-1815: the Enlightenment and the political crisis of 1808, Morelos's military campaigns, the military jacket he wore, and his final defeat.

The building is also a working historical archive. It holds about two million documents from the bishopric and government of Michoacán dating from the 17th to the 20th century, plus a monastic library of 1,507 books, and has a consultation room for researchers. Morelos's birthplace, a separate museum run by the state, is about 150 m to the northwest on Calle Corregidora, so the two houses are easy to visit together.