Found­ed by the Span­ish in the ear­ly 16th cen­tu­ry, Gua­na­ju­a­to became the world‘s lead­ing sil­ver-extrac­­tion cen­tre in the 18th cen­tu­ry. This past can be seen in its ‘sub­ter­ranean streets‘ and the ‘Boca del Infer­no‘, a mine­shaft that plunges a breath­tak­ing 600 m. The town‘s fine Baroque and neo­clas­si­cal build­ings, result­ing from the pros­per­i­ty of the mines, have influ­enced build­ings through­out cen­tral Mex­i­co. The church­es of La Com­pa­nia and La Valen­ciana are con­sid­ered to be among the most beau­ti­ful exam­ples of Baroque archi­tec­ture in Cen­tral and South Amer­i­ca. Gua­na­ju­a­to was also wit­ness to events which changed the his­to­ry of the coun­try.