Katharine Shilcutt is a native Houstonian who really likes visiting other cities, states and countries; she’s been nominated for a James Beard Award and three Association of Food Journalists Awards, taking home the latter twice.
Shilcutt recently published on houstoniamag.com, an interesting article titled “Querétaro: A Modern City with a Well-Preserved Colonial Past”, in which she describes this colonial city and gives tips and recommendations of things to do in this traditional but at the same time modern city in Central México.
IT WAS CLOSE TO 3 P.M., and we’d been walking since 9 a.m., but neither my mother nor I was tired. We were inside the large, regal courtyard of what had once been La Casa de la Corregidora—home to Querétaro’s mayor and his wife during the early days of the Mexican War of Independence against Spain—and we were fascinated.
The 74 arches of Querétaro’s 18th-century aqueduct traverse its modern streets and highways. (Photo: houstoniamag.com)
All around, intricate murals painted tales of the brave actions of Mexican patriots like Miguel Hidalgo, José Maria Morelos and La Corregidora herself: Doña Josefa Ortíz de Dominguez, whose stern gaze still presides over one of the main squares of her historic city in statue form. When we arrived at the final panel, our affable tour guide, Aarón Trejo, chuckled and told us: “You know the rest.” In this case, “the rest” is what happened after Texas took cues from Mexico and sought its own independence from the then-young country.
The city’s Templo de San Francisco dates to 1540. (Photo: houstoniamag.com)
It was the culmination of a walking tour that began with a hazy sunrise over Querétaro’s famous 18th-century aqueduct from atop the very hill on which the city was founded in 1531. The tall, slender arches of the Romanesque aqueduct stretch away from the hilltop Mirador de los Arcos that offers a resplendent view of the centuries’ worth of architecture below, which gained Querétaro a UNESCO World Heritage designation 20 years ago.
Source: http://www.houstoniamag.com
