Zitácuaro

Heroica Zitácuaro lies at about 1,940 m in the valley of Quencio, in the far east of Michoacán near the border with the State of Mexico, some 150 km east of Morelia. With almost 87,000 people in the city (2020 census) it is the largest city of the state's eastern region, a commercial town ringed by pine-covered mountains, with Otomí and Mazahua communities in the surrounding municipality. Federal Highway 15, which follows the old royal road between Mexico City and Morelia, runs through it, and the monarch butterfly wintering grounds lie in the mountains to the north.

The city earned its title of 'Heroica' the hard way. In August 1811 the insurgent leader Ignacio López Rayón set up the Suprema Junta Nacional Americana here, regarded as the first attempt at an independent Mexican government. Royalist troops under Calleja took the town in January 1812 and burned it; Santa Anna's troops burned it again in 1855 for supporting the Ayutla revolution, and French imperial forces burned it a third time in April 1865 after the Republican victory at Tacámbaro. In 1868 President Benito Juárez decreed that San Juan Zitácuaro would be known as Heroica Zitácuaro.

The Cerrito de la Independencia, a hill with a monument to López Rayón and a small museum, looks out over the valley. In the centre are the Plaza Benito Juárez, the Teatro Juárez, the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, the city's patron, and the Museo Casona de la Estación in the former railway station. The Calle del Hambre, 5 de Mayo street, is lined with food stalls; look for uchepos and corundas. The oldest church is the Franciscan temple in Coatepec de Morelos, with a rare monolithic atrial cross. South of town the Presa El Bosque reservoir, built in 1951 to 1954, is used for fishing, camping and boating, and to the north are the ruins of San Felipe de los Alzati, a pre-Hispanic ceremonial centre.