The Museo de la Ciudad de Mérida is a fairly new museum and gallery, opened in June 2007 in in the former Federal Edificio de Correos (literally”building of mail”) built in 1908.

The building originally housed the Post Offices and Telegraph Offices, as well as those of the Treasury Headquarters and District Court, but eventually only the Post Offices and Telegraph Offices remained.

In its four quite small “salons” on the ground floor it exhibits collections of Mayan, colonial, and contemporary pre-Hispanic pieces and objects.

The first salon focuses on Pre-Hispanic Mérida, and contains pieces related to Mayan culture, the pre-Hispanic city of Th’o or Ichcaanzihó (another name used for the current city of Mérida).

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The second salon’s theme is La Colonia or Mérida Novohispana, where
objects related to the foundation of Mérida, education and evangelization, the first Cabildo, defense and armament, and daily life, all illustrate the history of Mérida during colonial times.

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The third salon depicted Mérida in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with exhibits about the economic boom and development of the city: the henequen haciendas, education, politics, immigration, architecture, society, styles and influences during the 19th and very early 20th century.
Objects and pieces reflecting modern Mérida’s culture, sports, architecture, and traditions are exhibited in the fourth room.

On the second floor of the City Museum are both permanent and temporary exhibit rooms where the most representative and current trends in visual arts, through painting, drawing, engraving, photography, sculpture, video and installation are shown.

The current temporary exhibition, entitled “Without Palms or Veils” presents a selection of works produced by Mexican artists Óscar Ortiz Otero and Gildo González Angulo, in a collaboration spanning the years from 1980 to the present. I absolutely loved the weird, colourful, sinuous works by Otera; less the more geometric edged pieces by González. In fact, when we got home and I started looking through Ted’s photos, I realized I hadn’t asked him to photograph a single one of González’ works, so all my memories when I look back here will be of Otero’s.

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Also on the second floor were galleries devoted to works by Fernando Castro Pacheco, the artist responsible for the Governor’s Palace murals. While much smaller in scale, and with much more personal themes, the similarity in style to the murals is obvious. I found it amazing that the addition of waves of colour to essentially simple drawings could add so much emotional depth.

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These galleries were a welcome surprise. I often find 20th century art “cold”, but these exhibits really inspired me.

On the Museo’s third floor, which is much more of a warehouse space, was an exhibit curated by Arturo Guzmán, of very recent works on the theme of “migration”. Most of the works were by Mexican artists, but there were also contributions from Germany, Israel, and Spain.

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Our visit to the Mérida City Museum and galleries was an interesting way to spend a couple of hours during the hottest part of the day, but after touring through our usual lunchtime we “needed” to stop at one of the taco stands on Calle 56.