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Early
It was the second cathedral completed in the Americas, in 1598
Mérida Cathedral is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas. It was completed in 1598, the second to be finished in the Americas after the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, which was completed in 1550.
The site
It was built among Maya ruins, with stones from a Maya temple
The colonial city was set amidst the ruins of the Maya settlement of Ichcansiho. Labor came from Maya workers, some of whom still practiced their own religion, and they used stones from the Maya temple of Yajam Cumu.
The vaults
Its vaulting follows the ideas of Andres de Vandelvira
The vaulting throughout the building was based on the ideas of Andres de Vandelvira, first applied to the cathedral of Jaen. The first bishop of Yucatán, fray Francisco Toral, came from Ubeda in the province of Jaen and may have brought the scheme to Mérida.
Coat of arms
The royal coat of arms was chipped away, then buried under cement
The coat of arms was designed to reflect the Spanish royal arms. After Mexican independence its central piece was removed with pickaxes and chisels, and in 1824 the shield was filled with a Mexican eagle. It was later buried beneath cement, which was removed.
Day 1, morning
It comes after Plaza Grande. Then Paseo de Montejo.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Cathedral of Mérida, Yucatán, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.