Palacio Cantón

The Palacio Cantón stands at Paseo de Montejo and Calle 43 and is considered the most prominent historic building on Mérida's grand boulevard. It was built between 1904 and 1911 as the home of General Francisco Cantón Rosado, a former governor of Yucatán, who lived there until his death in 1917. The design was by the Italian architect Enrico Deserti, who was building the Teatro Peón Contreras at the same time; the general's nephew, the engineer Manuel G. Cantón Ramos, ran the works, and the sculptor Michele Giacomino carved its ornament.

Its eclectic Beaux-Arts style, with French influence and classical and baroque details, and its materials, some brought from France, Italy and Germany, show off the fortune that henequen made in Yucatán. The family sold it to the state in 1932. It then housed a school and the state school of fine arts, and from 1948 it was the official residence of Yucatán's governors. In 1966 an agreement between the state and INAH turned it into the Museo Regional de Antropología.

Today the museum holds Maya material from sites across the peninsula, from stelae and carved stones to sculptures and ceramics, spanning the Preclassic to the Late Postclassic, plus temporary exhibitions; many of the old collection's pieces moved to the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya in 2012. After a pause it reopened in December 2024 with shows on the history of the palace itself, Maya trade and its god Ek Chuah (151 pieces), and early studio portraits by the photographer Pedro Guerra. Even without the exhibits, the building's salons and ornament are worth the visit.