The church of a hundred bells
Yotholín is part of the municipality of Ticul, 97 km (60 miles) south of Merida. In religious matters, the population depended on the monastery at Oxkutzcab.
According to Miguel Güémez Pineda, a linguist specializing in Yucatec Maya, the meaning of Yotholín is “press or squeeze the bosom or breasts”, deriving from yoot’ol, to fondle or squeeze with the fingers, and iin, breast(s).
Local tradition has it, Güémez goes on, that in the early days of colonization, a Spanish horseman approached a young Mayan woman to ask her the name of the village, at the same time squeezing her breast. She replied angrily “Má a yoot’ in wii” (Don’t touch my chest!)
During the 16th and 17th centuries, on the site where the church would stand, there was a chapel of ease, which can still be seen at the back of the building. Above the door are some pre-Hispanic stones, relics of the ancient settlement of the Tutul Xiu chiefdom, and barely protruding from the church wall is the old chapel bell-tower.
In 1762, work began on the new church, dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. On the front the building boasts a characteristic feature: a spectacular bellcote with 16 openings, which gives the complex a unique look, reminiscent of the roof-combs on top of pre-Hispanic buildings at Labna and Tikal.
According to Dr. Garcés Fierros, a graduate of the INAH’s National School of Conservation and Restoration and expert in sacred art, although bellcotes were a distinctive feature of Franciscan churches, the one at Yotholín is “possibly the most impressive in Yucatan” and earns the church its designation as an artistic treasure, despite not forming part of a monastery complex.
As at many other villages, many of the religious images that graced the interior of the church were destroyed during the early years of the 20th century. Fortunately, the beautiful baptismal font survived and was brought to Merida, where it is exhibited in the “Canton Palace” Regional Anthropology Museum.
Although the church at Yotholín was founded under the auspices of St. Francis, the patron of this extraordinary house of worship, standing proud among the Puuc Hills of Yucatan, is St. Bonaventure, one of the great Doctors os the Catholic Church, whose feast is celebrated on the 15th of July.
The outside of Yotholín church can be viewed any day at any time, whereas the interior is subject to the timetable of religious services.
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