San Juan Bautista


Dating from around 1609, Tekax' church has been looted a couple of times, initially during the Caste War and later during the Mexican Revolution. Most noteworthy is its shape, that of a three-tiered pyramid. Since it was most likely constructed of materials taken from nearby Maya temples, it's possible that the architecture was based on a Maya structure.

Several years ago its residents replaced the church’s damaged floor with a beautiful tiled floor and added a lovely new stone altar.

According to Maya Missions: Exploring the Spanish Colonial Churches of Yucatán, a fabulous book by Richard and Rosalind Perry, during construction of the church one of its belfries collapsed, burying (and presumably crushing) the many indigenous laborers under tons of rubble. Miraculously, as local legend has it, no one lost their life in the collapse.


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