Things to do
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Casa de los Once Patios
A former Dominican convent of many small courtyards now holds workshops where Michoacán crafts are made and sold. Lacquerware painters, backstrap weavers and copper workers often work in view, and the rooms open off stone patios with flowering trees. It lies a short walk south of Plaza Vasco de Quiroga, and each shop keeps its own hours.
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Janitzio
A steep island village rises from the middle of the lake, crowned by a giant statue of José María Morelos with his fist raised. Stairs inside the statue climb past murals of his life to a lookout in the fist. Boats leave from the Muelle General north of town when full, a ride of about twenty minutes.
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Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Salud
On a rise east of the main plaza, this basilica stands on the foundations of a cathedral that Bishop Vasco de Quiroga planned and never finished. Above the altar is the Virgen de la Salud, a figure modelled by Purépecha artisans from a paste of maize stalks.
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Biblioteca Gertrudis Bocanegra
Inside the nave of the former church of San Agustín, now a public library, Juan O'Gorman painted the history of the Purépecha across the whole end wall, from the founding legends of the lake to the Spanish conquest and independence. Reading tables fill the floor below it, so visits follow library hours. The building faces the small Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra, beside the town market.
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Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares
Vasco de Quiroga founded the Colegio de San Nicolás in this building in the sixteenth century, and its rooms now show the crafts of Michoacán: lacquered gourds and chests, hammered copper, ceramics, masks and textiles. In the garden at the back stands a troje, a wooden Purépecha house assembled without nails. Entry is ticketed and the museum closes on Mondays.
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Santa Clara del Cobre
Hammers ring from the family workshops of this village south of Pátzcuaro, where copper is still beaten by hand into pots, jugs and plates over open fires. Many workshops let visitors watch, and the Museo Nacional del Cobre on the plaza shows prize-winning pieces. A national copper fair is held each August.
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Zona arqueológica de Tzintzuntzan
Five yácatas, stepped platforms that join a round body to a rectangular one, line a vast terrace above the lake shore, the ceremonial centre of the Purépecha capital that held off the Aztec empire. The view runs over the water to Janitzio. Colectivos towards Quiroga pass the town below in about twenty minutes; the Franciscan convent stands there.
