Arcos de Mérida

The Arcos de Mérida are three colonial arches that still stand over streets of Mérida's historic centre: the Arco de Dragones and the Arco del Puente, a block apart on Calle 50 in the barrio of La Mejorada, and the Arco de San Juan on Calle 64, by the park of San Juan south-west of the Plaza Grande. The first arches were ordered in 1690 by the governor Juan José de la Bárcena, nearly 150 years after the city was founded. One version holds that they were meant as gates in a planned city wall, at a time when Mérida, like nearby Campeche, feared pirate raids; the wall was never built. In practice they marked the edge of the Spanish centre, beyond which lay the barrios where the Maya and mixed-race population lived, and two of them stood at the start of royal roads: the Arco de San Juan on the road to Campeche and the arch on Calle 59 on the road to Izamal.

More arches followed in the 18th century, eight in all, and most were later lost. The Santa Ana arch was pulled down around 1815 and the Santa Lucía arch in 1822; another fell after a lightning strike, and the one at Calles 70 and 61 collapsed in 1851, earning the name Arco Caído. That collapse prompted a careful rebuilding of the three still standing, which were repaired again in 1888, 1909 and 1950. All three share the same style, a tall arch crowned with a raised gable, and they are considered the last arches of their kind preserved in Mexico.

Each has its own story. The Arco de Dragones, at Calles 50 and 61, takes its name from the barracks of the Dragones regiment beside it, and its niche holds a worn image of a saint. The Arco del Puente, at Calles 63 and 50, is crowned by a stone cross instead of a saint and is named after a wooden footbridge that once crossed a drainage ditch here in the rainy season; small pedestrian doorways of different heights open on either side. The Arco de San Juan, at Calles 64 and 69, is the largest and best preserved and marks the old exit towards Campeche and the Ermita de Santa Isabel; today buses for villages around Yucatán stop beside it. Plaques beneath the arches tell their history, and they can be seen at any time from the street.