All about Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Mérida

Parroquia Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Iglesia de la Mejorada) is a sixteenth-century colonial-style church with a typical plain facade and is located next to the small Parque de La Mejorada ("K'íiwik Mejorada").

The large church is located on the corner of Calle 59 and Calle 50, opposite the small Parque de la Mejorada. The church is cruciform and in the single-nave interior there are several small chapels on both sides.

The construction of the church began in 1621 and its completion was in 1640, 19 years later. Between 1688 and 1694 a monastery was also built. It used to be one of two convents built by the Franciscans in Mérida.

Often the old name is still used (Iglesia de la Mejorada). And as in many other cases, the name probably comes from the Spanish city of the same name. This is all the more likely because at that time a church with a similar ground plan was built in the Spanish town of Mejorada.

An interesting detail: there is nothing to indicate it today, but the Parque de la Mejorada was the place where the first railroad track of the Yucatecan Peninsula was laid on April 1, 1870. Adjacent to the park is the Centro Cultural del Niño Yucateco (Yucatecan Children's Cultural Center).

The spirit of a 19th century soldier

Almost half a century, from 1847 to 1901, was characterized by the Caste War on the Yucatán Peninsula. The Caste War ("Guerra de Castas" in Spanish) was a temporarily successful but finally failed war of independence waged by the Mayan population.

It was triggered by the execution of a Mayan leader in 1847. Many towns and villages were decimated by the war during this period. Quite a few of the destroyed haciendas are also the direct result of the caste war - the inhabitants were killed or were able to escape and never returned.

The family of a Spanish soldier also fled to Mérida. At the beginning of the war, Mérida was one of the few cities that the Maya had not taken immediately. And even during the Caste War, Mérida and Campeche were the only cities that were not taken by the rebellious Maya.

But when the soldier returned to Merida after a war mission, however, he found that his entire family, wife and children, had been killed by Mayan rebels.

The Catholic priests tried to give comfort to the survivors at this time, but for some there was no comfort left. So the soldier, for whom life no longer had any meaning, decided to suicide and hanged himself one afternoon from the rafters of the Mejorada church. But his spirit remained on earth.

The priest who had spoken to him earlier said that he was suffering from incurable melancholy. He was abandoned in life, and so his spirit still wanders lonely and aimlessly through the church, the former monastery and the adjoining park - without ever finding redemption. He has been seen many times since then, but without ever saying a word.

Would you have the right words of comfort if you met the lonely ghost?

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