It’s widely known that the historic center of San Miguel de Allende is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What not a lot of people know is that also includes the Santuario de Atotonilco, located 12km northwest of the city center in the small pueblo of Atotonilco.
We weren’t able to check this place out on our last visit, and our RV park is located on the highway leading to the church. So we thought, what the hey, let’s do a day trip.
UNESCO sites differ so widely, it’s hard to tell sometimes what we’re in for. It could be a life-altering experience, or it could be another well-maintained 400-year-old church, of which Mexico is certainly in no short supply.
Getting there should have been straight forward enough. Head to the highway, look for the buses headed north that say Atotonilco, and hop on. And in many ways it was. But these buses don’t come terribly often, and they entirely bypass the pueblo on the main highway before entering town from the north side.
But, it’s only a short walk from the bus stand into town (there isn’t much of a town, by the way), and the church is easy to find, as all roads seem to lead there.
Total travel time on the bus from Hotel San Ramon (RV park) to Atotonilco center was just over 20 minutes. Total bus fare there for the four of us (two adults, two kids) came to around US$2.50.
Santuario de Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco
One of the biggest surprises we learned after coming here, is that the Sanctuary of Atotonilco isn’t all that old—at least not by Mexico standards, and definitely not by San Miguel de Allende standards (the complex was mostly constructed in the latter part of the 18th century).
So why so significant? The complex has been called the “Sistine Chapel of Mexico”—and for good reason. Every square inch of ceiling of every nook and cranny in the sprawled out church is awash in colorful and elaborate murals painted by Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre over thirty years.
Santuario de Atotonilco by no means the grandest church we’ve visited in Mexico—far from it. But the murals make it one of the more striking so far.
Santuario de Atotonilco is also a popular pilgrimage site, attracting as many as 5,000 visitors a week. Fortunately, this particular Saturday, there’s only a handful. But I can only imagine what the place must be like at capacity.
Visiting hours are 9am to 5pm daily, but this being Mexico, these aren’t set in stone. Admission is by donation (which is strongly encouraged by staff members). We had read that there was a separate area requiring an admission fee, but never saw it.
A lot of visitors like to tie a visit to Santuario de Atotonilco into a day trip from San Miguel de Allende to Dolores Hidalgo (40 minutes north of Atotonilco). We had other plans in SMA that day, so we decided seeing the church was enough.
There’s not much else around town, so if you’re staying in the center of SMA, don’t have your own transport, and don’t have plans to head to Dolores Hidalgo, then a day trip to Santuario de Atotonilco might not be worth it.
For our purposes, it turned out to be a nice little outing. And, we got some of the best Gorditas we’ve ever had out of the visit, so we were very happy with the outcome.
San Miguel de Allende Library Fair
Our time in San Miguel de Allende coincided with the Library Fair, put on by the SMA Public Library. Given the boys’ love of books, we weren’t going to miss it. So, after we were finished up at Atotonilco, we high-tailed it into the Centro for an afternoon of fun activities.
Say what you will about SMA, but there always seems to be fun events and festivals like this happening year-round. Not sure we could stomach the tourist crunch and high prices if we lived here, but these sorts of activities would help make up for it.
In addition to kids books to read, the festival offered play areas, painting and crafting tables, game areas, and theater presentations.
Noe even found a couple of people to play chess with.
This is how the sky looks every day by 4pm. Usually a good sign that it’s time to head back to the RV park. We’re looking forward to spending an entire week in the Centro starting tomorrow. The boys will be starting summer camp and we’ll all be sleeping in a brick-and-mortar building for the first time in over four months.
