There is little in Merida to remind you of its past as one of the most important ceremonial cities in the Postclassic Maya world. Some vestiges remain of its days of wealth and European elegance, when sisal profits paid for elegant Italian furnishings and foreign vacations.  Isolated geographically and culturally from the rest of Mexico, Merida’s elite tended to look outside for cultural inspiration.

Merida is a city of more than 1.5 million people. Hotels are clustered in historic downtown, with the fanciest high-rises along Prolongacion de Paseo Montejo. Restored churches and theatres are scattered among modern one and two-storey structures in deep pastel colours.

Merida’s core was reserved for the elite, surrounded by Indian towns and later mixed and mesticzo neighbourhoods. Each enclave was a world within itself, its social and religious life centered around the parish church.