Mayan allegory in a church to Mary
The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the village of Tixcuytún is a hidden treasure of Yucatan’s religious and cultural heritage. The façade resembles a dovecote, with decoration reminiscent of Mayan designs found in buildings at the archaeological sites in the Puuc region.
Tixcuytún, population less than 1000, is 9km (5.5 miles) from Tekax, the municipal capital.
The exact date when building began on the church is unknown, although it is clear that originally it was a simple Indians’ Chapel. The present church was finished around 1760, including the façade with a roof-comb resembling a bellcote, along with triangular sections on either side resembling steeples. These also have openings, but like those of the main façade, they are too small to house bells.
There are a total of 41 openings in the façade, 27 in the central section and seven in each lateral triangle, each shaped like a eight-petalled flower. The whole brings to mind the architectural design of the Dovecote at Uxmal, a typical feature known as a roof-crest found crowning Mayan buildings there and at Labná, both pre-Hispanic sites recognised as World Heritage by the UNESCO.
In the early 2000s, an archaeo-astrological phenomenon was first noted at Tixcuytún church, similar to the solar spectacle that takes place at the House of Dolls in Dzibilchaltún, a Mayan city located 17 km (10.5 miles) north of Merida.
During the autumn equinox, when the sun appears on the horizon, it produces a spectacle which complements the idiosyncratic architecture of the church.
In his article The Magical Phenomenon of Tixcuytún, published in the Diario de Yucatán on the 10th October 2011, Miguel Angel Cervantes Aguilar, a teacher from Tekax and discoverer of the phenomenon, pinpoints the 27th to 29th of October as key dates for event’s occurrence.
As the sun rises, Cervantes explains, its rays pierce each of the openings on the roof-comb in turn, moving from north to south, until it has completed its course across the facade.
Later, in the afternoon, when the sun has passed the peak of the church building and starts to descend, a beam of light passes through the choir window and illuminates the gloomy interior of the church, as if engulfed in flames.
The old Indian chapel, with its singular belfry, now serves as sacristy to the church. Inside the church, the spectacular vaulted ceiling is painted blue, with bright yellow details, giving the feeling of an open sky filled with stars.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, patron of the village, is celebrated on the 15th of August, when religious devotion co-exists with traditional secular festivities, such as bullfights.
Tixcuytún is a Mayan place name which means “place of sterile trees”, according to the Cordemex Mayan Dictionary, from Kuytun, a Mayan patronymic referring to a tree that does not give fruit, and ti’, an adverbial prefix that indicates a location.
In order to visit the church, it is important to consider the timetables during which religious services are held.