Querétaro - Plaza de la Independencia (Plaza de Armas)

The Casa de Escala (Casa Municipal de la Cultura) also stands in the plaza. It is a beautiful building decorated with sculptures and wrought-iron balconies.

Other buildings in Querétaro worthy of mention include the 18th c. Cathedral of Felipe Neri, the 17th/18th c. church of El Carmen, the 18th c. church of San Antonio and the 17th/18th c. church of Santiago with its convent cloister lined with arcades and its Neo-Mudéjar portals. The Capuchin convent, dating from the early 18th c., was Emperor Maximilian's last place of confinement before he was shot. The Casa de la Marquésa (Casa de Cultura) dates from the first half of the 18th c. and possesses a highly-imaginative patio with Neo-Mudéjar elements.

The Palacio de Gobierno or Casa de la Corregidora (Government Palace), an attractive building dating from 1770 with wrought-iron balconies, is situated on the Avenida 5 de Mayo and the Plaza de la Independencia. Here Josefa Ortíz de Domínguez, the wife of the mayor ("Corregidor"), warned the conspirators in the 1810 independence movement of the discovery of their plans, which led to the premature outbreak of the War of Independence.

The Casa de los Perros (House of the Dogs), the former home of Mariano de Las Casas, stands near Calle Allende Sur 16. This small 18th c. palace owes its name to the gargoyles on the exterior and in the beautiful patio, decorated with an unusual fountain.

Once the home of Marquesa de la Villa del Villar, this building was constructed in the 18th c. The home features two floors, a courtyard and a wooden door.

A memorial to the architect of the aqueduct, the Marquis de la Villa del Villar del Aguila, stands in the middle of the plaza.

Going south-west from the main square along Avenida Francisco Madero in a south-westerly direction, the Hosteria de la Marquesa (mid-18th c.) is passed on the left and the church of San José de Allende (late 17th c.) on the right. The Fuente de Neptuno (Neptune Fountain), a Neo-Classical work by the sculptor Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras dating from 1797, stands in the small park on the corner of Madero and Allende.

South of the main square (Plaza Principal or Jardin Obregón) lies the old Convent of San Francisco, founded in the mid-16th c. A century later the church was renovated and subsequently the convent as well. It now houses the interesting Museo Regional, with works by the great artists of the Colonial period from the 17th to the 19th c., as well as a collection of historical weapons, documents and other items.

Diagonally opposite the Augustinian Convent, on the Avenida Pino Suárez and Calle Guerrero Sur, can be seen the plain façade of the Santo Domingo Church (end 17th c.) and the Rosary Chapel, the work of Mariano de Las Casas and dating from 1760.

Maximilian and his two generals, Mejía and Miramón, were tried and sentenced to death in the Teatro de la República north of the main square. The Federal constitution was proclaimed here in 1917.