Hacienda Santa Rosa de Lima

Hacienda Santa Rosa de Lima, usually just called Hacienda Santa Rosa, stands in the village of Santa Rosa in the municipality of Maxcanú, about 60 km southwest of Mérida and some 9 km northwest of the town of Maxcanú. The village, with 913 inhabitants in 2010, grew up around the estate and takes its name from Saint Rose of Lima; it was officially Santa Rosa de Lima from 1980 to 1995.

The estate rose with the henequen boom. Its first known owner was Benito Montero of Calkiní, who sold it to the brothers José Dolores and Encarnación Guzmán; when they parted ways in 1870 José Dolores kept it and added a powerhouse with a boiler and steam engine. In 1886 it was mortgaged to Manuel Zapata Bolio and then passed to José Domínguez, who sold it in 1889 to his brother Alfredo; around 1892 it went to the Urcelay family, headed by José Antonio Urcelay Peniche. In 1897 ninety people lived on the estate, which also kept 363 head of cattle as well as horses and mules. The buildings seen today were finished largely in 1909, when the colonial-style main house, cellars and keeper's house went up, and in 1916, when the powerhouse with its grain shredder was added in a mix of Renaissance and neoclassical styles. The 1937 land reform took away land and machinery, and as world demand for natural fibre collapsed, planted henequen fell from 3,465 hectares to 276 within a few years.

In 1996 a private company took over the abandoned estate and restored it as a luxury hotel. It follows the usual north–south hacienda plan: the main house and powerhouse face the main square, with the workers' entrance, the company store, the church and the school completing the complex. The suites have ceilings about 18 feet high with exposed beams, 10-foot double wooden doors and tile floors, and a 9,200 m² botanical garden laid out in an old orchard holds more than 200 plant species, several of them native only to the peninsula. Long sold as part of Marriott's Luxury Collection, it now appears in booking listings as an IHG hotel, with 11 rooms and suites, a pool, a spa and a restaurant. It is first of all a place to stay rather than a day-trip sight: Yucatán Today praises the restaurant but notes that outside guests get in only when occupancy allows, so call ahead.