Explore Guadalajara

A neoclassical theatre in the historic centre, opened in 1866 behind a portico of Corinthian columns and named after the liberal general Santos Degollado. Its horseshoe auditorium has a ceiling painted with a scene from Dante's Divine Comedy; it is home to the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.

The seat of the government of Jalisco on the Plaza de Armas, a Baroque building completed in 1790. Above its main staircase José Clemente Orozco painted a mural of Miguel Hidalgo in 1937, and a museum on the upper floor covers the history of the state.

A museum of the INAH in an 18th-century seminary building facing the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres. Its rooms around a courtyard cover the palaeontology, archaeology and history of western Mexico, from a mammoth skeleton and shaft-tomb figures to colonial painting.

The cathedral of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara in the historic centre, begun in 1561 and consecrated in 1618, with neo-Gothic spires covered in yellow tiles added after earthquakes in the 19th century. It stands between four squares laid out in the shape of a cross.

A former orphanage and hospice founded by Bishop Juan Cruz Ruiz de Cabañas, built by Manuel Tolsá from 1805 around 23 courtyards and a domed chapel. The chapel carries José Clemente Orozco's murals of 1936–39, including The Man of Fire in the dome; it is now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A neo-Gothic church dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, designed by Adamo Boari and built between 1897 and 1972. Its stained-glass windows came from France, and the clock in its tower has mechanical figures of the twelve apostles that come out at set hours.

A Franciscan sanctuary of the 17th century in the centre of Zapopan, about 7 km north-west of central Guadalajara. It keeps a small wooden figure of the Virgin brought from Spain in the 16th century, carried in a procession of hundreds of thousands every 12 October; a Huichol museum stands beside it.