There’s something otherworldly about seeing Castillo Santa Cecilia appear in the hills above Guanajuato—a castle with turrets, arched windows, and ivy-draped walls that feels lifted from a medieval tale.
But this isn’t just a hotel built for fantasy. Beneath its romantic façade lies a layered past. In 1686, this land was part of the Hacienda de Beneficio de San Francisco Javier, where silver was refined from the nearby mines. For years, workers toiled under the eye of the Viceroy of New Spain. Later, in a short-lived but noble chapter, the grounds became an albergue and hospital around 1916—before being left to silence and dust.
In the early 1950s, Don Manuel Quezada Brandy acquired the property and reimagined it as a place of fantasy and hospitality. He began construction on May 17, 1951, blending the foundations of the old hacienda with a grand medieval aesthetic. By 1952, Castillo Santa Cecilia opened as a hotel with 20 rooms, soon becoming a favorite among artists, celebrities, and curious travelers.
Today, wandering through its ivy-wrapped staircases and quiet stone alleys, you feel the layers of history beneath your feet—centuries of labor, transformation, and imagination. It’s more than a hotel; it’s a living storybook, standing tall above Guanajuato as a bridge between eras.
I took these photos on August 25, 2022. I had been longing to see this castle again—it had stayed in my memory ever since my first visit back in the 1990s.
Hotel Castillo de Santa Cecilia
Camino a la Valenciana S/N, km 1, San Javier
Guanajuato City, Mexico
Here’s another post celebrating the beauty of Guanajuato City, along with more stories from Mexico’s charming colonial towns.
