Barrio de San Román

San Román is one of the traditional neighbourhoods of San Francisco de Campeche, lying southwest of the old centre, just outside the former city walls and a short walk from the seafront. It covers about 80 hectares and has around 3,900 residents. Mexico's federal Tourism Secretariat (SECTUR) named it a Barrio Mágico on 8 February 2024, at a ceremony in the church forecourt; it was Campeche's first and the 17th in the country. Since 1999 it has been part of the protected area of the fortified city listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

The quarter grew up in the mid-16th century as a settlement outside the walls, first for Maya people and naboríos, Indigenous workers brought from central Mexico, and later became home to fishermen and sailors. By around 1650 it had the most important shipyard in the region, busiest between 1765 and 1811, and it took the brunt of pirate raids by William Parker (1597), Cornelis Jol, known as Peg Leg (1633), and Lorencillo (1685).

Its focus is the church of San Román, now the diocesan shrine of the Black Christ. Work on the chapel began in 1563, as an open chapel; a transept was added in the 18th century, the main doorway was finished in 1776 and the tower took its present shape in the 1960s. The late 19th-century high altar holds the Cristo Negro, a carved wooden crucifix almost two metres tall on a cross clad in embossed silver, which arrived in 1565 and is the most venerated image in the state. Legend has it that the ship carrying it from Veracruz survived a storm because a stranger took the helm. Its fair, officially recognised since 1873, runs from 13 to 29 September and includes a procession at sea that re-enacts the arrival.

Facing the church is the San Román park, opened in 1891, and beside it the Paseo de los Héroes, inaugurated in 1910 with a monument to Hidalgo. Calles 10 and 12 hold most of the colonial and 19th-century houses, mixed with a few Art Deco buildings; the neighbourhood market, built in 1953-1955, sells groceries and cooked food, and the San Román cemetery dates from 1821. Several old houses and the park are run down, and street lighting is poor at night near the seafront and the bar strip.