The promise of tasting strawberries' sweet flavor is a perfect excuse to decide to visit Irapuato city, also known as World’s Strawberry Capital. Chichimecas were the first inhabitants, later displaced by Tarascans, who occupied the area at the time of Spanish arrival.
The most accepted origin of the word Irapuato comes from the Tarascan “xiriquitzio” or “iriquitzio”, which means “Hill that emerges from the plains”, may referring Arandas hill that stands out in the great plain. The fertile soil soon turned Irapuato into an agricultural center that earned it the “New Spain’s Granary” nickname. However, the strawberries that today are immediately associated with its name weren’t yet cultivated.
The Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg was who introduced this fruit farming directly in the region. Another Maximilian’s gift to the city was the 1864 emblematic Fuente Florentina o de los Delfines (Florentine Fountain or the Dolphin Fountain), one of the three fountains he gave to the country during his tenure.
La Fuente de los Delfines in Plaza Madero might be a good starting point for beginning to explore the city getting into its charming “crooked streets” to enjoy the view of its “torres mochas” alluded in a Jesús Sánchez Valtierra famous poem.
Few steps from Plaza Madero, in front of the main garden, is the Catedral o Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia dating from 1631. It’s near the Fuente de las Aguas Danzantes, a newer fountain with a jets and lights late-afternoon show. There is also the famous Torre del Reloj (Clock Tower).
As tourist information office, is the starting point of many of the excursions that go through the city and its surroundings: the Paseo Mágico through the historic center, the Ruta de Murales, the Ruta de Casonas con Historia, the Ruta Arqueológica, the Ruta de las Fresas and the Ruta del Tequila.
Another city must is the Plaza de los Fundadores, where the City Hall, decorated with murals that tell Irapuato history, is. You should also visit the charming Templo del Hospitalito and, on one side, admire Salvador Almaraz’ Origen de Irapuato mosaic mural.
Finally, all time long in fact, you have to savor strawberries either with cream, dipped in chocolate, crystallized, sweetened, with chili, “borrachitas”, in jams, in sauces, fresh from the bush or in the thousand ways Irapuato offers. Irapuato is a 45-minute from Silao and an hour from Celaya, both roadtrip.
