Yaxcopoil Yucatan. Mexican haciendas.

The Hacienda Yaxcopoil, which is part of the Mayan World, Zona Puuc and Monastery Routes, offers the following services: a spanish guided visit to the hacienda includes a stroll to the different points of interest referenced in the "Visitor's Guide", printed in spanish, english, german, french and italian. The tour lasts about sixty minutes.

This classic rural style hacienda has rest area, refreshments, handicraft and antiques store; its spacious corridors and exuberant gardens are ideal for regional banquets and to accommodate events, all in a unique and incomparable atmosphere.

The admission to the Hacienda Yaxcopoil is $ 30. Pesos per person. We are open Monday through Saturday from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. and Sundays from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M., throughout the year.

The Hacienda (landed property) Yaxcopoil can be dated back to the seventeenth century. "Yaxcopoil", signifying in Mayan language "the place of the green alamo trees", combines in its history the three great periods of ancient Yucatán: The precolumbian period, the time of the Spanish colony, and the boom years of the sisal cultivation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

With an extension of about 22 000 acres of land in the time of its greatest splendor, Yaxcopoil was considered one of the most important rural estates due to its size and magnificence, both in the cattle branch and in the sisal hemp industry.

The main building consist of large lounges and drawing rooms, spacious corridors whit high ceilings, surrounded by extensive gardens whit infinite varieties of colours and exuberant vegetation that places us in a unique and incomparable atmosphere. It still keeps the original European furniture which transmits the taste and atmosphere of the time.

The main hall is dominated by two oil paintings showing Don Donaciano García Rejón and his wife Doña Mónica Galera who in 1864 acquired the hacienda which had already existed during the time of the Spanish colony. Since then estate has been passed on from parents to children to its present owner, a descendent of Don Donaciano and Doña Mónica.

The office displays some books, maps, documents, and other collections from the time of the hacienda administration. The chapel of the hacienda keeps an oil painting from the colonial period, and the image of its patron saint, San Gerónimo de Yaxcopoil, is still venerated there.

From the precolumbian period Yaxcopoil still keeps Mayan ruins within its montes (forest and scrub land) consisting of numerous pyramids. The six most important ruins whit heights that vary from six to twenty metres (i.e. 20 to 65 feet), a court for ceremonial ball games, and stelae are scattered in an area of about eight square kilometres.

One of the halls, the so-called "Maya room", has been converted into a small museum showing numerous pieces of ancient pottery and other archaeological relics of the "classic period" (A.D. 250-900) found in the Mayan ruins of Yaxcopoil.

Due to its buildings of the classic rural style, Yaxcopoil is undoubtedly the sisal hemp estate best know in the region, in particular since its casa principal, its orchard and corrals has been the scenic background for various movies and television broadcasting.

Any tourist who really wants to know the past of ancient Yucatan should tour a hacienda, because they are part of its history. Of all the haciendas on the Peninsula, however only a few of Yaxcopoil´s magnitude have been preserved, since most of them have been largely destroyed.

Travelling south on the highway to the Uxmal ruins, passing by Yaxcopoil, its characteristic monumental "Moorish double arch" immediately catches the eye. This typical structure of the colonial period, possibly the most beautiful one of Yucatan, is an open gate offering a cordial welcome to the visitor.