Mercado Lucas de Gálvez

Lucas de Gálvez is Mérida's main market and the largest in the city, filling the blocks between Calles 65 and 67 and Calles 54 and 56A, a few blocks southeast of the Plaza Grande. It has more than 2,000 stalls spread over about 15,000 square meters, and somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 people pass through on a given day. The newer San Benito market adjoins it to the south, and the Museo de la Ciudad stands across the street.

The market is named after Lucas de Gálvez, who governed Yucatán as intendant and captain general from 1789 to 1792. It was officially opened on 16 September 1887 as a shed with wooden arcades that was meant to be temporary. A neoclassical building replaced it in 1909, and the present functionalist building was inaugurated on 2 June 1950; an east wing followed in 1965 and more changes in the 1970s. Old photographs from around 1890 to the 1930s, now in the UADY's Pedro Guerra photo archive, show how the area changed. In 2026 the city reworked the surroundings: 45 informal stalls were cleared from the sidewalks of Calle 56A, known as La Pepita, new pedestrian space and planters went in, the seafood section's façade got two murals by the artist Rodrigo Leal "Loyal", and a coworking space opened in La Placita, the upper level.

Inside it is crowded, wet underfoot and busy from before dawn. The ground floor sells fruit and vegetables, including seasonal mamey, pitahaya and huaya, along with meat, poultry, fish and seafood, flowers and the spice pastes called recados, achiote and habanero chiles; the north side has seafood, fruit, sweets and pets. Clothing, guayaberas, huipiles, palm hats and leather goods such as alpargatas, sandals and belts are sold inside and in the surrounding streets, and shoemakers still work here. Upstairs, cocinas económicas serve poc chuc, papadzules, panuchos and sopa de lima, while seafood stalls cook on the ground floor. The market's most famous food comes early: cochinita pibil stalls near the Calle 67 side start selling tortas and tacos at about 4 a.m. and the best of them are sold out by 7 or 8.