Mérida Overview

By Allen Cox

Today’s Mérida, the official and cultural capital of the Yucatan, is a vibrant, urban center where traditional Maya and contemporary Mexican cultures overlap. Even though its population has exploded to almost one million, the city retains a friendly atmosphere that welcomes visitors and invites exploration.

The vast municipal market, a few blocks from the Plaza Mayor, is a maze of stalls and shops that beckon visitors to spend the day browsing. After dark, people head outdoors, and the Plaza Mayor, Paseo de Montejo, Parque Hidalgo and Parque Santa Lucia are the spots to be seen. On many evenings, the latter offers free concerts, dance performances, or public readings by nationally renowned poets. In the city’s graceful historic center, streets are lined with colonial-era mansions that have been carefully restored to house stylish boutique hotels, restaurants serving Yucatecan and international cuisines, shops, galleries, museums and private residences.

The city experienced a post-colonial building boom in the 19th century, a time when wealthy hacienda owners built European-style mansions along the Paseo de Montejo, making Mérida the “Paris of the Tropics.” One of the most opulent of these mansions, a grand Italianate structure, now houses the Museo de Antropología e Historia, a must-see, displaying artifacts and exhibits on pre-conquest Maya civilization.