Gateway to faith and education
In one of the Historic Downtown’s busiest streets, unnoticed by the endless ebb and flow of pedestrians, the ancient building which housed the Conciliar Seminary of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Ildefonso waits patiently for vindication.
The building dates back to the 18th century, when the 21st bishop of Yucatan, Francisco de San Buenaventura Tejada Diez de Velasco, ceded the area occupied by the patio and garden of the old Bishop’s Palace, on what is now 58th Street and 63rd, in order to construct a school for the education of young men aspiring to the priesthood.
Although construction of the seminary – also known as the Tridentine College – began in 1757, the institution had in fact been founded six years earlier, on the 22nd of April 1751, and had been operating in the Jesuit College of St. Peter, which is now the central building of the Autonomous University of Yucatan.
The new building consisted of two floors, and included long galleries, the main hall and library, classrooms, a chapel, a sacristy, a refectory and a kitchen, all arranged around a central courtyard which is now covered. It was connected to the Cathedral, at times some of its facilities were used for Cathedral services.
The Seminary remained operational for a century, with a few brief interruptions, and was raised to the category of university. It was closed for good in 1861, with the passing of the Reform Laws.
The principal entrance is the main feature of the two-story façade facing 58th Street. It is a two-level stone doorway, topped by a pediment which originally bore the arms of the King of Spain, although only the Imperial crown remains. The central window is embellished by free-standing statues of the patron saints: Our Lady of the Rosary, with the Christ Child in her arms, and St. Ildefonso wearing his bishop’s robes; both are among the city’s valuable pieces of colonial art. According to the historian Renán Irigoyen Rosado, the doorway to the Seminary is the most spectacular in the city after that of Montejo´s House.
The Conciliar Seminary is undoubtedly a landmark in the history of education in Yucatan, and many generations of famous Yucatecans passed through its halls, both teachers and students. Among them were Nicolás de Lara, Pablo Moreno, Andrés Quintana Roo, Lorenzo de Zavala, Justo Sierra O’Reilly and Manuel Crescencio Rejón, figures who would play a leading role in the political and cultural life of 19th century Yucatan and Mexico: protagonists in the building of an independent nation.
Since the closure of the Seminary, the building has been put to various secular uses, even being sold off to private buyers. Today it survives, partially disfigured and occupied by a variety of commercial businesses, awaiting better times and more appropriate utilisation.
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