Rosewood San Miguel de Allende

From the terrace of Luna, on the roof of Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, the pink stone spires of the Parroquia rise above a field of domes, bell towers and terracotta roofs. The hotel opened in 2011 a few blocks from the Jardín, the main square of a highland town that UNESCO had inscribed on its World Heritage List three years before.

History

San Miguel was founded in 1542 by the Franciscan friar Juan de San Miguel and grew rich in the colonial era as a halt on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that carried silver from the mines of Zacatecas south towards Mexico City. Ignacio Allende, born here in 1769, was one of the leaders of the independence uprising of 1810, and in 1826 the town took his name. The hotel's restaurant is named after that year. The town's mansions, churches and lanes survived the following two centuries largely intact, which is why a new hotel in the centre had to look as though it had always been there.

The Parroquia that fills the view from the roof owes its look to the nineteenth century. Its pink neo-Gothic façade was raised in the 1880s by Zeferino Gutiérrez, a local mason said to have worked from postcards of European cathedrals.

Architecture and design

The hotel is a new building, but it follows the rules of the historic centre and the habits of the colonial house. Rooms and halls are arranged around courtyards, gardens and fountains. The materials are those of the town: cantera stone, wrought iron, carved wood, painted tiles and walls washed in ochre and terracotta. Gardens and terraces step down the site, and an outdoor pool sits among them.

Rooms and suites

Rooms open onto balconies or terraces, many with fireplaces for the cool highland nights, and the upper floors look over the rooftops towards the Parroquia. Suites add sitting rooms and larger terraces. Furnishings use Mexican crafts, with textiles, ceramics and silverwork from the region.

Dining

1826 Restaurant and Tequila Bar is the main dining room, cooking the dishes of the Bajío and central Mexico with produce from the farms of Guanajuato, and the bar pours a long list of tequilas and mezcals. Luna Rooftop Tapas Bar serves small plates and cocktails with the view of the Parroquia, and fills at sunset, when the stone turns from pink to deep rose.

Wellness

Sense, A Rosewood Spa, offers massages and treatments that draw on Mexican traditions and plants. The heated outdoor pool and the gardens around it give the hotel a quiet centre after a day on the cobbles.

Weddings and events

San Miguel is one of the most requested wedding towns in Mexico, and the hotel's gardens and terraces are among its most used settings. Ceremonies often take place in the town's churches, followed by a callejoneada, the local procession through the lanes with musicians and mojigangas, the giant papier-mâché puppets that lead wedding parties to the reception. The hotel's lawns, courtyards and the Luna terrace host receptions and dinners, and its function rooms take meetings and private events.

Location

The hotel sits in the Zona Centro, close to the Jardín, the Parroquia and the market streets, and the town is best explored on foot. Querétaro Intercontinental Airport is about an hour away by road, and Del Bajío International Airport at León about an hour and a half; Mexico City is around four hours' drive. The town sits at roughly 1,900 metres, so days are warm and nights cool for much of the year. The sanctuary of Atotonilco, inscribed with the town in 2008, lies about 14 kilometres north, and the botanic garden of El Charco del Ingenio overlooks the town from the east. This is a luxury hotel in San Miguel de Allende that leaves the town itself in charge of the view.