Janitzio

One of the main attractions of the region is the boat trip to this island, whose name means “corn hair” and which is the largest and most important island in the lake. Here you can admire and buy a wide variety of handicrafts, taste exquisite typical dishes in its numerous restaurants run by the island's inhabitants, and upon reaching the highest part you can visit the interior of the enormous statue of Morelos.

This work was commissioned to Juan Tirado Valle (born in Mexico City) by the then Governor of Michoacán, Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, who also commissioned the artist Ramón Alva de la Canal (1892-1985), also originally from Mexico City, to paint murals inside the statue, who took about 5 years to complete the work.

The monument presents the style art déco, It is 40 meters high and is built of reinforced concrete with pink quarry stone cladding on the outside; the interior is hollow.

The work stands on the summit of Janitzio Island, which is a natural elevation of volcanic origin. The statue is located on a flat esplanade that serves as a plaza.

The statue represents the upright figure of José María Morelos y Pavón looking up, his right arm raised with his hand clenched in a sign of triumph, and his left hand holding a sword as a support.

Inside there are stairs that spiral up to the viewing platform located at the top on the statue's shoulder. In the head there is a room that serves as a cubicle where objects from Morelos were once kept. In the clenched hand there is another viewing platform of smaller space, which offers a panoramic view of the four cardinal points of Lake Pátzcuaro.

On the walls of the staircase, which has 5 levels, there are murals by Ramón Alva de la Canal, which are distributed in 56 panels that narrate the history of José María Morelos y Pavón and events of Mexico's Independence.

At its base, the esplanade where the statue stands has a base of angled walls covered in stone, where on its front there is an open bronze book containing the Sentiments of the Nation that Morelos devised.

In front of the statue's base there is a plaza that serves as a viewing platform and where old bronze cannons are found. Behind the statue's base there are landscaped areas.