Cuitzeo

Cuitzeo stands by the lake of the same name, where its inhabitants once lived in settlements extending along the shore toward Huandacareo. Around 1550, the Augustinian friars Francisco de Villafuerte and Miguel de Alvarado founded the convent of Santa María Magdalena. The friars helped gather the dispersed population into a more compact town; by 1563 Cuitzeo had passed from a private encomienda to the Spanish Crown.