Guanajuato

From the statue on the hill the entire city fits in one view. A funicular takes two minutes to reach it, and walking takes twenty.

Sixty eight centimetres separate the balconies on either side, close enough to reach across. An old story attaches to the steps, which is why the photographs happen there.

Stone tunnels remaining from the diversion of the river now carry traffic. A narrow pavement runs through them, walkable but very loud.

Opened in 1903 with eight bronze figures standing along its front. When nothing is on, a ticket admits you to the auditorium and the stage itself.

Bodies dried out naturally by the soil and minerals of the cemetery are on display. Expressions survive on the faces, so it is not put forward for children.

During the eighteenth century much of the world's silver came out of this shaft. Standing at the mouth, the bottom is too far down to see.

A broad flight fans down from the university building. Students occupy it through the day, and an empty step is hard to find.

A band works its way through the lanes singing while the audience walks behind. The ticket comes with a clay cup that gets refilled along the route.

The painter's birthplace, its ground floor furnished as it then was. Studies and mural sketches hang on the upper floors.

A yellow church faces the square, holding a wooden image of the Virgin from the eighth century. A Spanish king is said to have sent it, and its base is silver.

A former granary, stormed in 1810 in the insurgents' first big victory. Later the heads of four captured independence leaders hung in iron cages from its four corners for 10 years. Today it is the state's regional museum, a big mural climbing the stairwell.

An iron-roofed market hall opened in 1910, a clock tower out front. The ceiling is so lofty that a story says it was drawn up as a railway station. Food counters and fruit fill the ground floor, souvenirs the upper gallery overlooking it.

A small triangular square before the Juarez Theatre, its Indian laurels clipped flat into a canopy. Bands play the central bandstand each evening, and the cafe terraces around it stay full late. Any walk across town starts from here.

Raised in the late 1700s by the owner of the Valenciana silver mine, right beside the shaft. Inside, three gilded Churrigueresque altarpieces fill the walls. It sits up the hill; ride the bus from town and see the mine on the same trip.

A Jesuit church raised in the mid-18th century right beside the university. Its pink stone facade is richly carved, and light falls through a dome rebuilt after the first one collapsed. It is an easy stop while climbing the university steps.

Paintings, sculpture and ceramics devoted to Don Quixote alone. Fitting for the Cervantes festival city, every room hangs the knight and Sancho as artists across the world saw them. On Tuesdays admission is free.

A performing arts festival held for about three weeks every October since 1972. It grew from students staging Cervantes' short interludes in the Plaza de San Roque in the 1950s. Rooms cost several times more during the festival, so book early.

A reservoir held back by a dam of 1749, on the eastern edge of town. The lakeside park rents out rowing boats, and mansions of 19th-century mine owners still stand around it. Quieter than the centre, it suits a morning walk.

A colossal bronze Christ atop Cubilete hill, toward Silao. The spot has long been held to be the centre of Mexico, and pilgrims come in numbers. The road up winds steeply, and the summit is windy and chilly.

Roughly an hour by car, the town where Father Hidalgo called for independence outside his church on 16 September 1810. That church still stands on the square, with Talavera workshops dotted around. Plaza ice cream carts sell even avocado or shrimp flavours.