An altar to art and devotion
Calotmul is a municipality in the east of Yucatan, some 170 km (105 miles) from Merida. It is neigbors with Espita, Tizimín and Temozón, and is not far from Valladolid. The name of the town is Maya, and translates as “two joined hills”, according to the Cordemex Maya Dictionary.
The settlement has pre-hispanic origins, and was established as an encomienda village in the mid-16th century. In his History of Yucatan, Friar Diego López Cogolludo mentions that Calotmul depended on the Franciscans of the “Valladolid Route”. The monastery, built in 1612 and given the name “The Invention of St. Stephen” (meaning the discovery of his relics), served Tahcabo, Itzabcanul and Espita as visiting villages.
The historian Ingrid Yam Chablé states that administration of Calotmul passed to diocesan priests in 1680. Later it was established as a curacy or parish. According to a plaque inset into the main façade, the present parish church was built in 1749, funded by the parish priest Joseph Prudencio Domínguez.
The main reredos at Calotmul is one of the finest examples of altarpiece art in Yucatan. It may date from the time of the church’s construction, since there exists a document in which Father Domínguez states that during his tenure as parish priest he not only undertook construction of the church and its sacristy, but also acquired sacred decorative objects, and adorned the church with “a high altarpiece, perfectly finished and gilded”.
The reredos is made of wood, and bears a wealth of ornamental plant motifs, lavishly covered in gold and silver leaf. It has two levels and six niches in total, containing various sacred images. The use of estipite columns stands out, as does the imperial crown at the very top of the piece.
In the central niche on the lower level is an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the village, dating from the late 16th century. According to Francisco Florencia, a Jesuit priest, in his book Marian Zodiac, the Virgin of Calotmul was among the most widely venerated in the province, as much for the beauty of the statue and her “lovely and peaceful face”, as for the fame of her miracles. Today her feast is celebrated from the 1st to the 8th of December.
The high altarpiece and other interesting pieces of sacred art in the church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Calotmul can be viewed during the normal times of church services.
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