Palizada

History

Unlike most of Campeche, this river country was not classic Maya territory. It belonged to the chiefdom of Acalán, a name meaning place of canoes, home to Chontal and Nahuatl-speaking groups. Near town, the mound of El Cuyo shows how they built: rings of logwood stakes filled with earth and faced with fired brick, raised above the floods.

Settlers began arriving in 1668, drawn by logwood, the dye-yielding tree known as palo de tinte that gave the place its name. The town was formally founded on May 18, 1772, as San Joaquín de la Palizada, and its parish church dates from 1773. Timber was floated down the river to be shipped from Ciudad del Carmen, and the French roof tiles that still cover the houses came back in exchange during the boom.

After independence the area passed between Yucatán, a short-lived federal territory of Isla del Carmen, and disputes with Tabasco, before joining the new state of Campeche in 1857. Palizada became a villa in 1850, received the title Patriotic and Liberal in 1868 for its support of the republican cause, and was made a city in 1959.