La Alhóndiga

At its core, La Alhóndiga is a granary, but it feels like a statehouse. Certainly, it is one of the most notable buildings of Guanajuato and of México. It was built originally at the end of the 18th century, in the glory days of Spain's silver mining empire. In 1810, it became the site of one of the most important battles of the Mexican independence movement when Miguel Hidalgo led a group of criollos (people of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent) against the Spanish aristocracy. This was half a century before the U.S. Civil War, and the museum asserts that Hidalgo was the first person to declare an end to slavery on the North American continent. (Later in the war, Hidalgo was killed and his head was staked on one of the corners of the Alhóndiga.) Today the building stores history rather than grain. It holds artifacts and tributes to Mexico's past, and the stairwells of the stoically white building are painted with vibrant, torrid murals by Chavez Morado.