“Unfinished” Church with a Gothic feel
Although it lacks towers or a bell-cote, the church at Umán is remarkable for its main entrance, consisting of three superimposed ogival or pointed arches which produce a design with a distinctive Gothic feel, something new to the Yucatan Peninsula.
The church, which stands to the side of the old Royal Road to Campeche, today 20th Street, is part of the ex-monastery of St. Francis of Assisi.
According to available books and articles, construction on the present church began in 1760, thanks to the enthusiasm of the parish priest Ignacio de Cepeda y Lira and an engineer named Manuel Torres, and to funding from the bishop of Yucatan Friar Luis de Peña y Mazo. Building was concluded 40 years later.
As was the case with most Catholic churches in Yucatan, this one traces its origins to a simple Indian Chapel dating to the 17th century and still visible on the north side, integrated into the unique architectural complex.
Pablo Chico Ponce de León, in his doctoral thesis Transformations and evolution of religious architecture in Yucatan during the 17th and 18th centuries, highlights the innovative design of this church, classifying it as 19th-century eclectic, or neo-Gothic.
The most obvious feature of the church is that it lacks a bell-tower, which, according to old blueprints, was going to be topped by a bulbous or onion-shaped cupola, similar to the two on Campeche Cathedral. In this regard, the volume Vice-regal religious architecture in Yucatan states that it was planned that the church “should bear a central tower i three sections with a cupola,and two smaller lateral towers”. Furthermore, the original plans for the project, dated 1792, can be viewed in the General Archive of the Indies, in Seville, Spain.
Despite not being completed, and thus earning the popular epithet “The Unfinished”, the church at Umán is considered one of the most splendid and majestic in Yucatan. The old monastery is now home to parish offices and meeting-rooms, in addition to the atrium, the old cemetery and the orchard.
Early in the 20th century, when Eleuterio Ávila y Valdós was interim governor (septiembre de 1914-enero de 1915), the rear of the monastery complex was butchered to open what is now 18th Street. Two masonry rooms were demolished, and the orchard was significantly reduced to make room for the baseball field.
According to the etymology given in the Dictionary of Yucatecan Spanish, Umán means “his way”, from u, his, and máan, way. The way in question undoubtedly refers to the “missionaries or Conquistadores who would have passed that way”. An alternative theory is that Umán probably derives from tah uman, “the ancient name for a medicinal plant”.
The exterior of the parish church of Umán can be viewed any day, but it is necessary to refer to opening hours in order to appreciate the interior gems.
Location