As a special addition to the Hotel Catedral web site, this page offers information about some cities of interest in the Mexican Republic.

The cities that we mention here are Taxco, Cuernavaca, Puebla and Guanajuato.

Travelling time from Mexico City to Taxco is approximately two hours on the modern highway that now links the two cities. The trip will take you through spectacular mountains until you see the spires of Santa Prisca church.

Taxco is famous in the Mexican Republic for it´s silver, silver shops line the main plaza and all the streets leading to it.

The city is protected as a national colonial monument which has ensured the preservation of it´s mansions built by early settlers. The beautiful main plaza in Taxco is called the "Plaza Borda", within this plaza is the Santa Prisca church, the main plaza also has many restaurants and shops with flower decked balconies.

There is also a small museum located at the back of the Santa Prisca church that displays pre-Hispanic archaeological relics found in the region.

The National Silver Fair is hosted in Taxco on the last Saturday of November, during which concerts are staged in the main plaza and a nationwide silver contest is held in the Casa Borda.

Cuernavaca is within an hour from Mexico City, it is a colonial city with many historic and cultural sites that surround it, the city can be easily visited as a day trip from Mexico City.

Cuernavaca was founded in 1197 by the Tlahuica, and was given the name Cuauhnahuac. During it´s history it has kept it´s tourist attractions and monuments in very good order.

There are many monuments to the pre-Hispanic era in Cuernavaca, such as the pyramid of Teopanzolco, an engraved stone that weighs 14 tons called Chimalli, a lizard carved in stone in San Anton and the Chapultepec eagle.

There are also many monuments in Cuernavaca that date back to the colonial era. The palace of Cortés is now one of Mexico´s finest museums, the Cuernavaca Cathedral was once a Franciscan monastery, the "Jardines Borda" are famous gardens that date back to the times of Maximilian, the Guadalupe church and the church of San Francisco, to name but a few.

Outside of Cuernavaca you can find interesting ruins of sugar cane factories, for example, the "Hacienda de Atlacomulco which used to belong to Hernán Cortés. There are also places of natural beauty like the Chapultepec Park and the San Anton waterfall that is 40 metres high.

The city of Puebla is located at about 60 miles from Mexico City. The City was established by the Spanish in 1531 on the main route betwwen the port of Veracruz and Mexico City.

A magnificent view of the volcanos, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl can be seen from Puebla and the surrounding area.

By 1539 Puebla had a university and was well known for milling, textiles, pottery, tiles and the architectural beauty of it´s colonial buildings.

The modern Puebla is very industrialized, however the historic center of the city remains a colonial treasure with elegant 17th and 18th century architecture and artwork. Puebla is close enough to Mexico City for a day visit.

Guanajuato is located in a canyon between large mountains, 230 miles north of Mexico City. It is an extremely beautiful colonial city that was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1988.

The area around the city of Guanajuato was found to be rich in silver, and so a mining town flourished that became the modern day Guanajuato.

The main plaza of Guanajuato is called the "Jardín de la Union", it is not actually a plaza in the traditional sense, but a wedge shaped central gathering point. There are sidewalk cafes, a bandstand, shops and many performers in the "Jardín de la Union".

Some other plazas in Guanajuato are the "Jardín de la Reforma", "Plaza San Roque" and the "Plaza de la Paz". The birthplace of Diego Rivera was in Guanajuato, and the house of his birthplace is now called the "Museo de la Casa de Diego Rivera", and contains period furniture and a collection of his artworks.

There is also a Mummy museum, called the "Museo de las Momias", this museum contains a collection of mummified corpses encased in glass caskets. There are about one hundred mummies on show and all are very well preserved due to the mineral salts in the soil where they were found.