page_title: San Miguel de Allende
section_title: Colonial period
hierarchical_section_title: San Miguel de Allende / History / Colonial period
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the north facade of the House of the Counts of Canal in San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico
context_page_description: San Miguel de Allende is the principal city in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, located in the far eastern part of Guanajuato, Mexico. A part of the Bajío region, the city lies 274 km from Mexico City, 86 km from Querétaro, and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato. The city's name derives from two persons: 16th-century friar Juan de San Miguel, and a martyr of Mexican Independence, Ignacio Allende, who was born in a house facing the city's central plaza. San Miguel de Allende was also a critical epicenter during the historic Chichimeca War where the Chichimeca Confederation defeated the Spanish Empire in the initial colonization war. Today, an old section of the town is part of a proclaimed World Heritage Site, attracting thousands of tourists and new residents from abroad every year.
  At the beginning of the 20th century, the town was in danger of becoming a ghost town after an influenza pandemic. Gradually, its Baroque/Neoclassical colonial structures were "discovered" by foreign artists who moved in and began art and cultural institutes such as the Instituto Allende and the Escuela de Bellas Artes.
context_section_description: By the mid-16th century, silver had been discovered in Guanajuato and Zacatecas, and a major road between this area and Mexico City passed through San Miguel. Indigenous attacks on caravans continued and San Miguel became an important military and commercial site. This led to the forty-year Chichimeca War. The viceroy in Mexico City granted lands and cattle to a number of Spaniards to motivate them to settle the area. He also gave indigenous groups limited self-rule and excused them from taxation. The location of the town would make it a melting pot as Spanish, indigenous peoples, and later criollos exchanged cultural influences.
  Eventually, major roads would connect the town with the mining communities in San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, and the rest of the state of Guanajuato. Serving travelers' needs and providing supplies to mining camps made the town rich. Textile manufacture was a major industry in the town. Locals claim that the serape was invented here. By the mid-18th century the city was at its height, and this was when most of its large mansions, palaces, and religious buildings were constructed. Most still remain. The town was also home to the area's wealthy hacienda owners. At that time, it was one of the most important and prosperous settlements in New Spain with a population reaching 30,000. By comparison, in the mid-18th century Boston had a population of only 16,000 and New York 25,000. The town's apogee came during the transition period between Baroque and Neoclassical architecture, and many of the mansions and churches show both influences. Mansions built in San Miguel are larger than normal for a settlement of its size.
caption: The House of the Counts of the Canal, built in the 18th century and currently owned by Banamex.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:09:17 13:19:12", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "27208", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9348", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "180", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:09:17 13:19:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:09:17 13:19:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "27070", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}