Surprising Mayan architecture
The Maya rivalled each other in prowess and daring in the construction of their impressive city-states. These cities experienced a first period of prosperity, known as the classical period, between the 3rd and 10th centuries, then, after the decline of certain urban centres, a second period of effervescence, known as the post-classical period, between the 11th and 16th centuries. Their powerful stone architecture is that of power and religion and is organized in a very codified manner. The city is divided into two parts. On the one hand, there is its ceremonial heart, which is often accessed through an archway, and which contains pyramids, temples, palaces, ball games, observatories and cisterns or chultunes, all organized around large areas, similar to the agoras. It is the place of residence of the priests and high dignitaries. The population resides away from the city, near the fields cut by irrigation channels and low stone walls, in oval and elongated huts, composed of a single room and made of a wooden structure on which rests a thatched roof. This is an art of living that is still practised today in many Mayan villages. All these spaces, as well as the city-states between them, are connected by sacbés, straight roads, built in limestone and slightly elevated from the ground level. To this mastery of urban planning is added that of architecture which expresses all its splendor in the ceremonial centers. It is all the more extraordinary that the Maya use only extremely rudimentary tools, stone or wood. The preferred material for construction is limestone, whose blocks are joined together with a crushed limestone mortar, before developing a stone-cutting technique that allows the blocks to fit together. The surfaces are covered with plaster and painted with mineral and organic pigments. In general, the buildings of the city are erected on more or less important stone bases. The flagship building is the pyramid, known as El Castillo. It is not a burial ground as with the Egyptians, but a platform on which a sanctuary is built. A vertical architecture to allow one to be as close as possible to the gods. The pyramids have staircases with an impressive slope, and terraced floors that are progressively reduced in a consummate art of proportion and perspective. Nothing is left to chance and astronomy and mathematics preside over the construction of each building. This is particularly true for the observatories of rounded shape, often equipped with spiral staircases, whose openings are calculated to allow a precise observation of the stars. The Maya are the only people in America to have made extensive use of the technique known as "false vaulting", consisting of a superimposition of mortar-bound stones that overlap and eventually meet, but without the central stone acting as a keystone to support the whole, hence the term "false vaulting" or corbelled vaulting, and hence the fact that the spaces cleared by this structure are low. Maya architecture also has a great decorative richness, using a resolutely epic style. The Maya mastered the art of bas-relief and mosaic (the result of a standardized and prefabricated production!) that can be found on the entire façade or only on the crests and lintels, thus emphasizing the structure. There are several styles. The Puuc style, of which the site of Uxmal is known to be the great masterpiece, is characterized by walls relatively sober at their base, but whose upper part is decorated with complex mosaics alternating geometric patterns, masks of Chaac (the god of rain) and interlacing religious symbols, the snake at the head. The Rio Bec style, found at the Xpujil site in particular, is characterized by platforms and buildings of great length flanked by towers with rounded corners, often in pairs and then built in a perfectly parallel fashion. The Chenes style can be recognized by its facades entirely covered with Chaac masks, while the site of Chichen-Itza highlights a Maya-Toltec style between the sobriety of the Toltec sculpted columns and the geometric richness of the Maya lintels. The Yucatán peninsula is home to hundreds of Mayan sites, not to mention all those that have not yet been discovered! But among the most astonishing, do not miss : Tulum, the only example of a city built by the sea and recognizable by its fortifications and walls; Uxmal with its incredible Pyramid of the Soothsayer and its Temple of the Governor of impressive proportions; Chichen Itza with its Pyramid of Kukulcan (the snake god) whose orientation was thought so that the shadow cast during the equinoxes gives life to the snakes that decorate it, and its beautiful observatory; or Coba linked to the other sanctuaries by 40 sacbés and Kabah and its richly decorated arch. You will also notice, on many sites, the presence of several structures within the same building: this is due to the fact that the Maya always rebuild in the same place, as if to take root and remain in a nature that never ceases to transform itself.
Colonial heritage
The first desire of the Spanish colonists was to evangelize this New World, so the first witnesses of their presence were religious buildings. Initially made of wood, clay and thatch, these buildings were later built in stone and took on the appearance of real fortresses with crenellated towers and buttresses... The inhabitants of the New World had to be impressed while protecting the missions, which were veritable cities within the city, grouping together a church, monks' cells, a school, a hospital, a library, gardens... Among the most famous buildings with a fortified silhouette, let us note: the San Francisco de Campeche convent, the Muna convent, or the imposing fortified church not far from Mayapan which has two towers and even a walkway. The first buildings are very often built on ancient Mayan sanctuaries, or even with the very stones of ancient temples, generally near a cenote (like the Mayan cities), and often have an open chapel, as if to better attract the Mayans, who are used to open-air ceremonies. A strange "cohabitation" between understanding the ancestral rites of the original peoples and a fierce desire for forced assimilation... Then, progressively, the buildings lost their austere appearance and took on the trappings of the Renaissance with its symmetry and sense of proportion, as shown by the cathedral of Mérida with its porticos on the façade and its superb barrel vaults that give an impressive height; it is the first of its kind in Mexico, with its symmetry and sense of proportion, as shown by the cathedral of Mérida with its porticoes on the façade and its superb barrel vaults that give it an impressive height, before following the more exuberant codes of the Baroque, with its fluted pilasters, niches and engaged columns, even if, in the Yucatán peninsula, the Baroque is less abundant than in the rest of Mexico, the exteriors remaining relatively sober. It is inside that the great decorative wealth is to be found, with most of the churches having very beautiful gilded wooden altarpieces. The convent of St Anthony of Padua, in Izamal, is a fine mixture of these influences. Built on the base of an ancient Mayan temple, its church dominates the surrounding area, while one cannot help but admire the superb 7,800m2 atrium surrounded by impressive colonnaded galleries. At the same time, the Spaniards built many cities which most often follow a grid plan with large avenues meeting at the Plaza Mayor, the main square of the city, lined with arcades and grouping together the great buildings of the city: cathedral, municipal palaces... As far as residences are concerned, the colonial architecture is functional. The one-storey houses are organised around a cool patio, while the interior spaces have high ceilings to allow the heat to escape. The civil architecture underwent a stylistic evolution similar to that of the religious buildings, first borrowing from the codes of the Renaissance, as shown by the superb façade of the Casa Montejo in Mérida, whose finely chiselled stone conquistadors and ochre and ivory ornaments are borrowed from the Plateresque Renaissance that was in vogue in Spain, before becoming Baroque with beautiful coloured façades embellished with balconies and wrought-iron gates. But it is in Valladolid that you can best appreciate this colonial atmosphere. Its colourful streets, its beautiful San Bernardino de Siena convent and its central square decorated with a superb garden have allowed it to become one of the Pueblos Magicos of the country... : the network of magic villages ! The colonial architecture is also defensive. The most beautiful representative of this military architecture is Campeche, the only fortified city in Mexico, with its beautiful polygonal ramparts equipped with bastions and its forts, such as those of San José and San Miguel. Fort San Felipe de Bacalar, with its star-shaped structure, is also a fine example.
Eclectic effervescence
Between the end of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century, the Yucatán peninsula experienced an astonishing architectural effervescence. The great families having become rich thanks to the trade of the natural resources of the area, they now wish to show their new status. Manors, castles and small urban palaces were built in the large cities. The architects in charge of these buildings were often French or Italian, which explains the presence of very European styles. To admire these beautiful residences, it is on the Paseo Montejo, the "Champs-Elysées of Merida", that you should go. The Palacio Canton, with its Doric and Ionic columns, its medallions and its imposing white marble staircase, is a fine example of borrowings from the Baroque and the Renaissance, integrated into a neoclassical ensemble. The theatres are also witnesses of this architectural effervescence. With its glass, metal and wood doors, its glass rosettes and its elaborate mirrors, the Armando Manzanero Theatre is a superb (and striking!) example of Art Deco. These wealthy families are often the owners who run the haciendas whose traditional chimneys dot the countryside. These are truly autonomous complexes comprising the Casa Grande or owner's house, which looks like a French castle or an English manor house, a chapel, a school, an infirmary, a cemetery, a prison, workers' houses, gardens, orchards and fields for cultivation; the whole being organised around a large central square and small patios bordered by colonnaded galleries. Some of these haciendas are protected by large walls and watchtowers, turning them into real fortresses. Today, many haciendas are being restored and transformed into sumptuous hotels. The Xcanatun hacienda in Merida and the San José Cholul hacienda in Tixkokob are superb examples.
Contemporary renewal
In 1956, the painter and sculptor Romulo Rozo designed the Altar de la Patria, the People's Altar, a monumental Mayan-inspired rotunda adorned with sculptures of the nation's great figures and Mayan symbols, and housing an eternal flame, the symbol of the country's independence... A very symbolic achievement, which translates the need to anchor oneself in a tradition, in a heritage. The same is true of Chetumal. Destroyed by a cyclone in 1950, the city was rebuilt, certainly in a reasonable way around large avenues, but leaving a large place to the Caribbean influence, which is found in the small yellow, green or blue houses, thus recalling the unique position of the Yucatán peninsula, nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Built ex-nihilo at the end of the 1960s to satisfy the growing influx of tourists from the United States, a forest of concrete hotel complexes, Cancun seems to break ostensibly with the history and heritage of the peninsula. And yet, in the heart of the most famous part of the city, the Isla Cancun or Zona Hotelera, on the site of El Rey, it is indeed a small Mayan pyramid that you can observe! The Riviera Maya is dotted with numerous hotel complexes including many golf courses and marinas, and yet some have the merit of maintaining a link with history, such as the eco-archeological park of Xcaret which surrounds the ruins of Polé, a large Mayan coastal settlement. But for those who prefer the discreet charm of the authentic, it is better to stay away from the very touristy areas and take advantage of an ecotourism that is constantly developing and that proposes to stay in cabanas, small wooden huts typical of the fishing villages that can be recognized by their palm leaf coverings and the hammocks that swing from their structure, or in hotels that blend perfectly with nature thanks to natural materials. Tulum has two fine examples: the Jungle Keva Hotel with its palm leaf roofs and walls coated with chukum, a local bioresin, and the Azulik complex, whose beautiful art gallery, IK LAB, with its rounded walls covered with plants, and its floor mixing the smooth surface of concrete and the rough surface of wood, is especially appreciated. Museums are multiplying in the peninsula, linking tradition and modernity. One of the most beautiful is undoubtedly the Great Museum of the Mayan World in Mérida by 4A Arquitectos/XYZ tech, whose facade formed of intertwined metal ribbons evokes the trunk and foliage of the Ceiban, the sacred tree of the Mayans. A Palace of Music should soon be built. Organized around a large patio and with a beautiful green roof, it will integrate harmoniously into the city. In 2023, Mérida should also welcome the Estadio Sostenible, a large arena designed by the Populous architectural firm, whose circular façade is inspired by the ring of the Mayan ball game, while its white colour is a nod to "the white city" as Mérida is nicknamed. The Yucatán peninsula has not finished surprising us!
