Barrio de Santa Ana

Santa Ana is one of the historic barrios on the north side of Mérida's centre, about 1 km up Calle 60 from the Plaza Grande, around the corner of Calles 60 and 47, almost at the start of Paseo de Montejo. Its heart is a small group of landmarks: the church of Santa Ana, the palm-lined park in front of it with a statue of Andrés Quintana Roo at the centre, and the Santa Ana market beside them. It makes an easy stop between the cathedral and the Paseo, and one of the best-known places in the centre to sit down to a cheap Yucatecan meal.

The site began as a small square at the centre of a pre-Hispanic Maya settlement, and in colonial times it became a modest barrio of artisans and day labourers. Before 1600 it was probably part of neighbouring Santa Lucía, and its plots were used to grow fruit and vegetables for the city. Its growth came in the early 18th century, when Governor Antonio de Figueroa y Silva laid out a straight street north from the bishop's palace with stone arches at either end, and in 1729 ordered a church built on the site of an old open chapel. The church was finished in 1733 and is believed to stand on a Maya platform. Figueroa y Silva did not see it completed: he died in the forests of eastern Yucatán after a campaign against the Belize buccaneers, and a plaque on the façade says his remains rest inside.

Today the church, with its two slender pointed towers and yellow façade, still faces the park, and many of the old houses around it have become shops and restaurants. The city government keeps the park and the market in good order, and since 2012 the barrio has been part of the circuit of the Noche Blanca arts night. The market is the main draw for visitors: its open dining area fills with families eating at the stalls, and the park is ringed with restaurants serving regional cooking, which a city councillor once called one of Mérida's most important food hubs. Santa Ana was also among the barrios that applied to the federal Barrio Mágico programme after La Ermita was named in 2023.