Merida
The very noble and very loyal "White City" ...
Merida
The city of Mérida was founded in 1542 where it was the T ’Hó ceremonial center by Francisco de Montejo y León“ the young man ”, whose house still exists on one side of the main square.
At the end of the 17th century the arches that delimited the center of the city where Spaniards and Creoles lived were built. On the outskirts of the City inhabited the indigenous Mayans and mulattoes. The arches that are still preserved and can be visited in Mérida are: The Arch of San Juan, the Arch of Dragons and the Arch of the Bridge.
HACIENDAS AND THE MONTEJO WALK
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the avenue “Paseo de Montejo” was built in Mérida in memory of the founder of the city Francisco de Montejo y León “el mozo”. This avenue was built resembling the French boulevards. This initiative was sponsored by the wealthiest owners of the henequen haciendas in Yucatán.
On both sides of the avenue, mansions and palaces such as the Cantón Palace were built, which has been used as an anthropology museum. Inside the Government Palace there are murals painted by the Yucatecan Fernando Castro Pacheco whose theme is the most outstanding historical events of the State from the time of the conquest to date.
The cathedral of Mérida dedicated to San Ildefonso, is the oldest that was built in Continental America. Its floor plan is in a Latin cross with a nave and a transept. Its style is Franciscan Renaissance, it has two towers and the construction material is quarry.