Pátzcuaro

History

Pátzcuaro was one of the first Purépecha towns, founded in the early 1300s. Tradition says the ruler Tariácuri made it the religious and ceremonial center of his people. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1522 the capital had moved to Tzintzuntzan, and Pátzcuaro was a thinly populated ceremonial site. After Nuño de Guzmán executed the last ruler, Tangáxoan, many residents fled to the hills.

Vasco de Quiroga, sent as a royal inspector in 1533 and named bishop of Michoacán in 1537, rebuilt the town. Around 1539 he moved the civil capital and the bishop's seat here from Tzintzuntzan, brought people back, founded the Colegio de San Nicolás and encouraged village crafts. The Purépecha called him Tata Vasco. The title of city and a coat of arms were confirmed in 1553, but after his death the authorities, the bishopric and the college all moved to Valladolid, today's Morelia, between 1575 and 1580.

Pátzcuaro remained the market and spiritual center of the lake region. An indigenous governor, Pedro de Soria Villarroel, led a rebellion here in 1766 and 1767, and the insurgent Gertrudis Bocanegra was shot on the main square in 1817. The railway from Morelia arrived in 1886. From 1920 the town was restored with an eye to its heritage, and in 1940 it hosted the First Inter-American Indigenist Congress.