Filming in Centro Histórico, San Miguel de Allende
Pink cantera stone spires rise over a plaza ringed by ochre and yellow colonial facades.
What Centro Histórico looks like
The sits under the , its pink cantera stone spires rising past clipped Indian laurel trees and wrought iron benches. The neo Gothic towers date from the 1880s, raised over an earlier Baroque church finished in 1709. A kiosk at the centre of the garden holds mariachi and trio musicians on weekends, and the faces the gardens from the north side of the plaza.
Streets leading away from the Jardín are narrow cobblestone lanes that climb and drop with the hillside underneath them. Plaster walls on both sides run ochre, orange and yellow, with hand forged iron grilles over the windows. Carved stone surrounds frame heavy wood doors, and houses behind those walls open onto interior courtyards rather than front yards. The roofs are flat, built of mortar over heavy beams rather than tiled.
The stands on the corner of Hernández Macías and Mesones. runs west off the Jardín past more of the same plastered facades. The keeps a carved stone portal and a red banner over its iron balcony to the southwest, on Calle Cuna de Allende.
The stands north of the centre, its door set inside a tall stone shell niche, a single bell tower rising beside it. Clipped hedges and flower beds line the small plaza in front of it, and pedestrians cross the open paving between the church and the plain white buildings around it.
Shot in Centro Histórico
Once Upon a Time in Mexico shot several exterior scenes around the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel in 2003, including the build toward a gunfight the story sets inside a church. Cantinflas's El Padrecito used Calle Canal and the Parroquia as a backdrop in 1964. Tales of an Immoral Couple filmed scenes at the Teatro Ángela Peralta and the Palacio Municipal in 2016.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico, 2003
The Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel
Played Culiacán, Sinaloa, early 2000s
The production shot several exterior scenes around the Parroquia, including the build toward a gunfight the story sets inside a church. Filming ran seven weeks in total, split between here, Querétaro and Guanajuato. Street View
What Centro Histórico can double for
Antigua in Guatemala
Antigua's baroque stone church facades and plastered colonial walls line equally narrow colonial streets. The town has its own documented production history, including The New Adventures of Tarzan in 1935 and The Border in 1982. Antigua's volcano backdrop is a giveaway in any wide or aerial shot, so keep the frame low on the rooflines to hold the match. Try searching baroque stone church facades now.
Taxco in Guerrero, Mexico
Taxco's narrow stone paved streets climb the same kind of steep hillside terrain as San Miguel's lanes, and its historic core keeps an unbroken run of colonial facades. Taxco's buildings keep red tile pitched roofs and whiter walls, so a high or rooftop angle needs to avoid the roofline to hold the match. Try searching narrow stone paved streets now.
Guanajuato's pink and green sandstone facades line equally narrow, hilly lanes with the same closely built colonial scale as San Miguel's own streets. Guanajuato's streets run past underground roadways converted from old drainage tunnels, narrow enough that only cars and vans fit through. Showing either one on camera identifies the city immediately. Try searching pink green sandstone facades now.
