There’s a history as rich and deep here as anywhere in the republic, starting before the Conquest when Querétaro (“rocky place”) was an Otomí town subject to the Aztecs; many Otomí still live in the surrounding area. In 1531 the Spaniards took control without much struggle and under them the town grew steadily into a major city and provincial capital before becoming, in the nineteenth century, the setting for some of the most dramatic events of Mexican history. It was here, meeting under the guise of Literary Associations, that the Independence conspirators (or “reformers”) laid their earliest plans. In 1810 one of their number, María Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, wife of the town’s Corregidor (or governor she is known always as “La Corregidora”), found that her husband had learned of the movement’s intentions. Although locked in her room, La Corregidora managed to get a message out warning the revolutionaries, thus precipitating an unexpectedly early start to the struggle for independence. Later in the century, less exalted events took place. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican/American War by handing over almost half of Mexico’s territory Texas, New Mexico, California and more to the US, was signed in Querétaro in 1848, and, in 1867, Emperor Maximilian made his last stand here. Once defeated, he was tried by a court meeting in the theatre and finally faced a firing squad on the hill, the Cerro de las Campañas, just to the north of town. The same theatre hosted an important assembly of Revolutionary politicians in 1916, leading eventually to the signing here of the 1917 Constitution, which is still in force today.

Querétaro’s colonial centre is particularly magical at the weekends, when festive crowds and markets throng the streets, and church bells echo across the plazas. The church of San Francisco, dominating the Jardín Zenéa, Querétaro’s main square, was one of the earliest founded in the city. Its eye-popping facade incorporates a dome covered in azulejos coloured tiles imported from Spain around 1540 but for the most part San Francisco was rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Take a look at the similarly opulent interior for an introduction to the city’s remarkable treasure trove of religious art. Adjoining the church, in what used to be the Grande Convento de San Francisco, is the Museo Regional de Querétaro (Tues–Sun 10am–7pm). Built around two large tangerine-coloured cloisters, the museum is being sensitively refurbished, with wooden floors, cream stone walls and a host of engaging chronologically arranged exhibits charting the history of Querétaro state, beginning with a large section on prehistoric culture and the region’s indigenous tribes.South of the museum lies the Plaza de la Constitución, formerly a market square now transformed into an attractive modern plaza with a central fountain that mimics the domed roof of the building on its south side. There’s more to see a couple of blocks north of the Jardín Zenéa at the Teatro de la República, which sits at the junction of Juárez and Peralta (Tues–Sun 10am–3pm & 5–8pm). Opened in 1852, this grand theatre has played a vital role in Mexican history: a court met here to decide the fate of Emperor Maximilian in 1867, and in 1917 the Mexican Constitution was agreed upon inside. A small exhibition celebrates the latter event upstairs, though the main reason to walk up here is to take a peek at the theatre itself, a magnificent space with four levels of enclosed balcony seating. Today the theatre is home to the Querétaro Philharmonic Orchestra and hosts several concerts through the year.

The little pedestrianized alleys that lead up to the east of the Jardín are some of the city’s most interesting, crammed with ancient houses, little restaurants, art galleries and shops selling antiques and the opals and other semiprecious stones for which the area is famous. The first of several little plazas and almost part of the Jardín Zenéa is the Jardín Corregidora, with an imposing statue of La Corregidora and several restaurants and bars where you can sit outside. Further south, the pedestrianized Andador Libertad runs past art galleries and boutiques from the Plaza de la Constitución to the Plaza de la Independencia, or Plaza de Armas, a very refined, arcaded open space. In the middle of the plaza stands a statue of Don Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana, the man who built Querétaro’s all-important aqueduct , providing the city with drinking water. Around the square is the Casa de la Corregidora, now the Palacio de Gobierno (Mon–Fri 8am–9pm, Sat 8am–6pm). It was here, on September 14, 1810, that La Corregidora was locked up while her husband made plans to arrest the conspirators. She managed to get a message to Ignacio Perez, who carried it to Independence movement leaders Allende and Hidalgo in the towns of San Miguel and Dolores.

While the city’s more exciting restaurants and bars remain around the eastern plazas, the commercial centre of Querétaro lies west of Jardín Zenéa, on and around Avenida Morelos. This is where you’ll find most of the shops, on formal streets lined with stately mansions. At the corner of Madero and Allende, the little Jardín de Santa Clara features a famous Fountain of Neptune, designed by Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras in 1797. Tresguerras (1765–1833) is rightly regarded as one of Mexico’s greatest architects he was also a sculptor, painter and poet and was almost single-handedly responsible for developing a native Mexican architectural style diverging from its Spanish roots. His work, seen throughout central Mexico, is particularly evident here and in nearby Celaya, his birthplace. Beside the fountain rises the deceptively simple church of Santa Clara, once attached to one of the country’s richest monasteries, dating back to 1633. Inside it’s a riot of Baroque excess, with gilded cherubs and angels swarming all over the profusely decorated retablos, virtually lining the length of the nave, created in the 1770s. Carry on west down Madero through Jardín Guerrero and you get to the Archivo Histórico del Estado, a stately 1860s building, and the Catedral de San Felipe Neri, which was completed in 1805 but only given cathedral status in 1931. The facade is a wonderful blend of pink sandstone and soaring Corinthian columns, but by Querétaro’s standards, the interior is relatively plain. Cut north along Guerrero, however, and you’ll come to the Museo de la Restauración de la República, Guerrero 23 Nte (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm). An ex-Capuchin convent founded in 1721, its small and well-presented series of rooms and courtyards is dedicated to the history of the French Intervention (1863–67) and the restoration of the Republic under Benito Juárez, highlighted with period weaponary, old prints, scale models and other bits and pieces. A room is also dedicated to Maximilian himself, who was imprisoned here in 1867 before being shot, the Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro (Tues–Sun 11am–7pm), fills a warren of rooms and galleries with temporary exhibitions, predominantly contemporary installation art, painting, sculpture and photography.

A couple of blocks south of the Museo de la Ciudad lies the Museo de Arte de Querétaro, Allende 14 Sur (Tues–Sun 10am–6pm) occupying the former Palacio Federal next to the church of San Agustín. Originally an Augustinian monastery completed in 1728 it was also a prison and a post office before becoming the federal offices in 1889, the museum is one the most ornate buildings in town. In the cloister, every surface of the two storeys of portals is carved with grotesque figures, no two quite alike, and with abstract designs. The sculptures, often attributed to Tresguerras. The large figures supporting the arches, for example, all hold their fingers in different positions: three held up to represent the Trinity, four for the Evangelists and so on. The contents of the museum are absorbing, with galleries devoted to seventeenth-century European painting and nineteenth-century art downstairs, along with temporary exhibition spaces usually featuring much better contemporary work. The collection of painting upstairs is mostly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing on Mannerism and Baroque styles, with the highlight a room full of works attributed to Manuel Cabrera. The church of Santa Rosa de Viterbo sits further out in this direction, at the junction of Arteaga and Montes, but is well worth the short walk. Its magnificent interior rivals Santa Clara for richness of decoration, plastered with art work, murals and vast gold retablos, but here there is no false modesty on the outside either. Two enormous flying buttresses support the octagonal cupola and a blue and white tiled dome. The tower, too, is Tresguerras’s work, holding what is said to be the first four-sided public clock erected on the American continent.

One kilometre west of the centre via Morelos or Hidalgo, the gentle eminence of the Cerro de las Campañas (“Hill of Bells”) commands wide, if less than scenic, views over Querétaro and its industrial outskirts. Maximilian and his two generals, Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía, faced the firing squad here (a small chapel, built in 1900 by Porfirio Díaz near the entrance, marks the spot). The hill is dominated by a vast stone statue of the victor of that particular war, Benito Juárez, glaring down over the town. Beyond the statue is the mildly entertaining Museo La Magia del Pasado (Tues–Sun 9am–5pm) with lots of interactive exhibits on Querétaro’s history targeted primarily at kids; the main focus is the Republican attack of 1867 that led to Maximilian’s capture. In order to reach the summit, avoid the parts of the new university campus sprawling up one slope; follow Hidalgo west, turn right onto Tecnológico and then left after 400m onto Justo Sierra where there’s the entrance to the neatly tended Parque Municipal del Cerro de las Campañas (daily 6am–6pm).

There’s plenty of good food in Querétaro, and some delightful places to sit outside amid the alleys and plazas east of the Jardín Zenéa. Try to sample a couple of local specialities, particularly a hearty lentil soup laced with dried fruit (usually just called “sopa regional”). Also try enchiladas Queretanas, tortillas fried in a chile sauce and stuffed with onions and cheese. Sunday buffets are big business here, and a host of places run Mexican-style brunches, great value. If you want to get together something of your own, head for the Mercado Escobedo, sprawled across several blocks just off Calzada Zaragoza, not far from the Alameda. Evening entertainment tends to involve a couple of beers in one of the restaurants or an hour or two lingering in one of the cafés. For a livelier scene, head to the bars along 5 de Mayo and see where the night takes you. The bigger clubs are all out in the suburbs and fashions change rapidly, so ask around and follow the crowd. Many have some sort of live music at weekends.