Visiting Taxco

My road trip from Mexico City eventually led me to Taxco, one of the most beautiful cities I visited in Mexico. Built across steep hills in the state of Guerrero, Taxco is famous for its colonial architecture, silver, narrow streets, and views across the surrounding mountains. This photo was taken from the rooftop of a restaurant overlooking the city.

Exploring Taxco on foot was probably my favorite part of the visit. The city was built long before automobiles, so many of the streets are incredibly narrow, steep, and winding. Some barely seem wide enough for a single car, while pedestrians squeeze along the edges between buildings.

One of the first things I noticed was how consistent the architecture looked. The historic center is filled with white buildings, red-tiled roofs, balconies, and older facades rather than modern glass towers. Even commercial businesses have to fit into the appearance of the old city. You can still spot familiar signs like Coca-Cola, and there was even a McDonald’s, but for the most part Taxco has done an impressive job preserving its historic character.

The other thing that seemed frozen in time was the traffic. Volkswagen Beetles were everywhere when I visited, especially as taxis. No matter how narrow or steep a side street looked, it seemed like another Beetle would eventually come crawling around the corner.

Taxco’s location makes the entire city feel vertical. Houses climb the hillsides in every direction, while roads make sudden turns and drops as they work around the terrain. It makes navigating slightly confusing, but also makes wandering around much more interesting because you never really know what view will appear around the next corner.

I came across this elaborate doorway on one of the larger buildings while walking through town. I never figured out exactly what the building was, but details like this seemed to appear everywhere in Taxco. Even ordinary streets had enough old architecture to keep me stopping for photographs.

The center of Taxco is relatively compact but extremely lively. Restaurants, small shops, vendors, taxis, and pedestrians fill the streets around the main square. There was never any shortage of transportation if I got tired of walking, although exploring the city on foot was much more interesting.

This man was getting his shoes shined near the main square, another small scene from daily life that caught my attention while I was wandering around downtown.

Even some of the smallest alleys had businesses tucked into them. Shops, displays, doorways, and stairs filled spaces that barely looked wide enough to serve as streets. Taxco is one of those cities where taking random turns usually rewards you with something interesting.

Santa Prisca Church

From much of Taxco, the towers of Santa Prisca rise above the surrounding buildings. The church dominates the historic center and is easily the city’s most recognizable landmark. I photographed it from several elevations, including a restaurant rooftop and higher points on the surrounding hills.

Santa Prisca owes its existence to the enormous fortune of José de la Borda, who became wealthy through silver mining around Taxco and financed the construction of the church during the 18th century. Work on the present building began in 1751 and was completed later that decade. Today it is considered one of the most important examples of Baroque architecture from colonial Mexico.

The interior was just as interesting as the exterior. This painting caught my attention because it appears to depict the Virgin Mary while pregnant, an image I hadn’t seen very often in Christian artwork.

The church is filled with elaborate carvings, paintings, altars, and decorative details. Much of the interior reflects the tremendous amount of wealth generated by Taxco’s silver mines during the colonial period.

Religion and Colonial History

I also came across religious artwork that reminded me of the harsher side of Mexico’s colonial history. Christianity spread rapidly after the Spanish conquest, but that process was often tied to political domination, destruction of Indigenous religious traditions, and pressure to convert.

A man in Taxco told me this painting represented an official connected with the Spanish Inquisition and pointed out the cold expression on his face. I can’t independently identify the person from the photograph, but the story led me to read more about the Inquisition in colonial Mexico.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office was formally established in New Spain in 1571 to police beliefs considered contrary to Catholic doctrine. One important distinction from what I had originally understood is that Indigenous people were generally excluded from the Inquisition’s direct jurisdiction as recent converts, although they were still subject to other colonial and church authorities.

Taxco ended up being one of the highlights of my road trip through central Mexico. The steep streets, endless Volkswagen Beetles, mountain views, silver-mining history, and architecture made it feel completely different from Mexico City and Cuernavaca. More than almost anywhere else I visited on that trip, Taxco was a place where simply walking around was enough to keep me entertained.