Three-towered architectural marvel
The Church at Yaxcabá, its trio of towers unique in Yucatan, rises majestically in the heart of a community founded in the 14th century by a descendant of the Mayan Cocom dynasty.
The Dictionary of Yucatecan Spanish the meaning of Yaxcabá as “water of green earth”, from the Mayan Ya’axkabha’, composed of ya’ax, green, kaab, earth, and ha’ water.
The church is dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, and according to the Catalogue of Religious Buildings in Yucatan, construction commenced in 1730, although the historian Miguel Bretos believes it was a little later, in the mid-18th century.
A simple church built of poles and palm leaves stood in the center of the village in the mid-16th century, on a spot now known as the Hermitage, but no trace of it remains.
In his translation of Diego de Landa’s Account of the Affairs of Yucatan, the American anthropologist Alfred Marston Tozzer states that in the second half of the 16th century the ancient practice, clandestine by this time, of animal and even human sacrifice continued in the original chapel. The village head, Pedro Euán, affirmed that “[he] had had the responsibility for sacrificing both men and children to honor the idols”, and that he had carried out the sacrifice of a young man from Tekax named Francisco Cauich.
In 1753 the Archbishop of Yucatan, Friar Ignacio de Padilla y Estrada, performed a blessing of construction work at the church, but along with the rest of the village, it was abandoned during the Caste War in 1847.
A little over a century later, in 1859, the building was rescued by the Maryknoll Missionaries, an American congregation which carried out significant pastoral work in Yucatan.
This piece of sacred art is notable for its three towers, which give a very particular appearance to the façade. The third tower is very unusual for the epoch, making the architectural design ahead of its time, and a source of fascination even today.
Despite becoming a battlefield during the Caste War, this parish church bears witness to the socio-economic well-being achieved by this area during Colonial times.
Beside other pieces of art from the vice-regal period housed inside Yaxcabá church, it is significant because it preserves, in the north wall, the tombstones of two major historical figures: Captain Tiburcio Cosgaya y Solís, killed in the nearby village of Cisteil during the uprising led by Jacinto Canek, on the 20th of November 1761; and Father Bartolomé José del Granado Baeza y Villafaña, parish priest of the community for almost half a century, and author of papers describing local customs. He died on the 13th of February 1830, at the age of 87.
To appreciate all the marvellous architecture of Yaxcabá church, it is necessary to take into account opening hours for services.
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