Yucatán and Campeche States
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Yucatán and Campeche States - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Baluarte de la Soledad/Museo de Arquitectura Maya
The largest of the city's bastions contains the Museo de Arquitectura Maya with artifacts from several Campeche State Mayan sites. The bastion was originally built to protect the Puerta de Mar, a sea gate that served as one of four original entrances to the city. Because it uses no supporting walls, it resembles a Roman triumphal arch. Its relatively complete parapets and embrasures afford views of the cathedral, municipal buildings, and old houses along Calle 8.
Calle 8, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–9136Sight Details
Rate Includes: MX$70 -
2. Baluarte de San Carlos/Museo de la Ciudad
This bastion, where Calle 8 curves around and becomes Circuito Baluartes, houses the Museo de la Ciudad with a small collection of artifacts, including several Spanish suits of armor and a beautifully inscribed silver scepter. Captured pirates were once jailed in the stifling basement dungeon. The unshaded rooftop provides an ocean view that's lovely at sunset.
Calle 8, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico -
3. Baluarte de San Pedro
Built in 1686 to protect the city from pirate attacks, this bastion flanked by watchtowers now houses one of the city's few worthwhile handicraft shops. The collection is small but of high quality, and prices are reasonable. On the roof are well-preserved corner watchtowers. You can also check out (but not use) the original 17th-century toilet.
Calles 18 and 51, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, MexicoSight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
4. Baluarte de Santiago/Xmuch-Haltún Botanical Gardens
The last of the bastions to be built has been transformed into the Xmuch-Haltún Botanical Gardens with more than 200 plant species, including the enormous ceiba tree, which had spiritual importance to the Maya, symbolizing a link between heaven, Earth, and the underworld. The original bastion, erected in 1704, was demolished at the turn of the 20th century, then rebuilt in the 1950s.
Calles 8 and 49, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, MexicoSight Details
Rate Includes: MX$15 -
5. Calle 59
Some of Campeche's finest homes were built on this street between Calles 8 and 18. Most of the two-story structures were originally dual-purpose, with warehouses on the ground floor and living quarters above. These days, behind the delicate grillwork and lace curtains, you can glimpse genteel scenes of local life. The best-preserved houses are between Calles 14 and 18 (many of those closer to the sea have been remodeled or destroyed by fire). Campeche's INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) office, between Calles 14 and 16, is a prime example; each month it displays a different artifact in its courtyard. At the end of Calle 59 is Puerta de Mar, a main entrance to the historic city. Look for the names of the apostles carved into the lintels of houses between Calles 16 and 18.
Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Casa Seis
One of the city's earliest colonial homes now serves as a cultural center. Its fully restored rooms are furnished with period antiques and a few well-chosen reproductions; original frescoes at the tops of the walls remain, and you can see patches of the painted "wallpaper" that once covered the walls, serving to simulate European trends in an environment where real wallpaper wouldn't adhere due to the humidity. There is a small coffee shop on-site, plus a gift shop selling products from Campeche. The Moorish courtyard is occasionally used as a space for exhibits and lectures. Activities occur here several evenings a week. Vivo Recuerdo, a musical/theater interpretation of Campeche's history, is presented Thursday through Sunday; Con Sabor a Chocolate, a chocolate-making demonstration, takes place on Friday and Saturday.
Calle 57, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–1782Sight Details
Rate Includes: House MX$30; Vivo Recurrdo MX$120; Con Sabor a Chocolate MX$90 -
7. Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción
It took two centuries (from 1650 to 1850) to finish this cathedral, and, as a result, it incorporates both neoclassical and Renaissance elements. On the simple limestone exterior, sculptures of saints in niches are covered in black netting to discourage pigeons from unintentional desecration. The church's neoclassical interior is also somewhat plain and sparse. The high point of its collection, now housed in the side chapel museum, is a magnificent Holy Sepulchre carved from ebony and decorated with stamped silver angels, flowers, and decorative curlicues. Each angel holds a symbol of the Stations of the Cross.
Calle 55, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–2524Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
8. Ex-Templo de San José
The Jesuits built this fine baroque church in honor of St. Joseph just before they were booted out of the New World in 1767. Its block-long facade and portal are covered with blue-and-yellow Talavera tiles and crowned with seven narrow stone finials—resembling both the roof combs on many Mayan temples and the combs Spanish women once wore in their elaborate hairdos. You can ask the guard (who should be somewhere on the grounds) to let you in. From the outside you can admire Campeche's first lighthouse, built in 1864 and perched atop the right-hand tower.
Calles 10 and 63, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–2292 -
9. Fuerte de San Miguel/Museo de la Arqueología Maya
Near the city's southwest end, Avenida Ruíz Cortínez winds to this hilltop fort with a breathtaking view of the Bay of Campeche. Built between 1779 and 1801 and dedicated to the archangel Michael, the fort was positioned to blast enemy ships with its long-range cannons. As soon as it was completed, pirates stopped attacking the city. In fact, the cannons were fired only once, in 1842, when General Santa Anna used Fuerte de San Miguel to put down a revolt by Yucatecan separatists. The fort houses the 10-room Museo de la Arqueología Maya. Exhibits include the skeletons of long-ago Maya royals, complete with jewelry and pottery, which are arranged just as they were found in Calakmul tombs. Other archaeological treasures are funeral vessels, wonderfully expressive figurines and whistles from Isla de Jaina, stelae and stucco masks, and an excellent pottery collection. Most information is in Spanish only, but many of the pieces speak for themselves. The gift shop sells replicas of artifacts.
Av. Francisco Morazán s/n, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–9111Sight Details
Rate Includes: MX$70, Closed Mon. -
10. Iglesia de San Francisco
With its flat, boldly painted facade and bells ensconced under small arches instead of in bell towers, the Church of St. Francis looks more like a Mexican city hall than a Catholic church. Outside the city center in a residential neighborhood, the beautifully restored temple is Campeche's oldest. It marks the spot where some say the first Mass on the North American continent was held in 1517—though the same claim has been made for Veracruz and Cozumel. One of conquistador Hernán Cortés's grandsons was baptized here, and the baptismal font still stands.
Avs. Miguel Alemán and Mariano Escobedo, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–2925Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, turismocampeche.com/folio/iglesia-de-san-francisco -
11. Iglesia de San Román
Like most Franciscan churches, this one is sober and plain, and its single bell tower is the only ornamentation. The equally sparse interior is brightened a bit by some colorful stained-glass windows, and the carved and inlaid altarpiece serves as a beautiful backdrop for an ebony image of Jesus, the "Black Christ," brought from Italy in about 1575. Although understandably skeptical of Christianity, the indigenous people, who the Spaniards forced into perpetual servitude, eventually came to associate this Black Christ figure with miracles. As legend has it, a ship that refused to carry the holy statue was lost at sea, while the ship that accepted it reached Campeche in record time. To this day, the Feast of San Román—when worshippers carry a black-wood Christ and silver filigree cross through the streets—remains a solemn but colorful affair.
Calles 10 and Bravo, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–3303Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
12. Iglesia y Ex-Convento de San Roque
The elaborately carved main altarpiece and matching side altars here were restored inch by inch, and this long, narrow house of worship now adds more than ever to historic Calle 59's old-fashioned beauty. Built in 1565, it was originally called Iglesia de San Francisco for St. Francis. In addition to a statue of Francis, humbler-looking saints peer out from smaller niches.
Calles 12 and 59, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–3144Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
13. Malecón
A broad sidewalk, more than 4 km (2½ miles) long, runs the length of Campeche's waterfront boulevard, from northeast of the Debliz hotel to the Justo Sierra Méndez monument at downtown's southwestern edge. With its landscaping, sculptures, rest areas, and fountains lighted up at night in neon colors, the promenade attracts walkers, joggers, and cyclists. (Note the separate paths for each.) On weekend nights, students turn the malecón into a party zone, and families with young children fill the parks on both sides of the promenade after 7 or 8 pm, staying out surprisingly late to enjoy the cooler evening temperatures.
Av. Rodolfo Ruiz Cortínez, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico -
14. Mansión Carvajal
Built in the early 20th century by one of the Yucatán's wealthiest plantation owners, Fernando Carvajal Estrada, this eclectic mansion is a reminder of the city's heyday, when Campeche was the peninsula's only port. Local legend insists that the art nouveau staircase with Carrara marble steps and iron balustrade, built and delivered in one piece from Italy, was too big and had to be shipped back and redone. These days the mansion is filled with government offices—you'll have to stretch your imagination a bit to picture how it once was.
Calle 10 584, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–7419Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed weekends -
15. Parque Principal
Though small by Mexican standards, this central park is picturesque with a beautiful view of Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción. Half of the old-fashioned kiosk in the park's center contains a branch of the municipal tourist office. The other half houses a pleasant café-bar, where you can sit and watch residents out for a stroll and listen to the itinerant musicians who often show up to play traditional ballads in the evenings.
Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico -
16. Puerta de Tierra
The Land Gate, where Old Campeche ends, is the only one of Campeche's four gates with its basic structure intact. The stone arch interrupts a stretch of the partially crenellated wall, 26 feet high and 10 feet thick, that once encircled the city. Walk the wall's full length to the Baluarte San Juan for excellent views of both the old and new cities. The staircase leads down to an old well, underground storage area, and dungeon. Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm, the gate is the site of a one-hour light show accompanied by music and dance.
Calles 18 and 59, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, MexicoSight Details
Rate Includes: Sound-and-light show MX$60 -
17. Reducto de San José el Alto/Museo de Armas y Barcos
This lofty redoubt, or stronghold, at the northwest end of town, is home to the Museo de Armas y Barcos. Displays in former soldiers' and watchmen's rooms focus on 18th-century weapons of siege and defense. You'll also see manuscripts, religious art, and ships in bottles. The view is terrific from the top of the ramparts, which were once used to spot invading ships.
Av. Escénica s/n, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico981-816–2460Sight Details
Rate Includes: MX$70, Closed Mon.
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