Casa de Montejo

Address:

Calle 63, between Calles 60 and 62
97000 Merida, Mexico
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Description:

Highlighting the Calle 63 side of the Zócalo, the Casa de Montejo was built between 1543 and 1549 by Merida's founder, Francisco de Montejo, El Adelante. His son and namesake, nicknamed The Younger, inherited the house, which remained the family home until 1832. It is a masterpiece of Spain's Plateresque style, which combined late Gothic, Moorish and early Renaissance elements. A monumental façade features a profusion of carved images of conquistador and indigenous figures, with the natives one-third the size of the Spanish. Above the doorway a man hunches over bearing the weight of the upper tier, perhaps representing Montejo's dominance over the Maya. Caryatids flank each window of the house's Neo-Classical extension. Banamex purchased the building in the 1970s (which explains why there's an ATM inside) and, in 2010, was in the process of restoring the landmark as a museum depicting the home life of Spanish Colonial aristocrats.
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