Bacalar Museum

Located inside the Fort of San Felipe in Bacalar is a wonderful museum. Well, the Fort is probably part of the museum, but we have separated them here. Be sure you also visit the page for the Fort of San Felipe.

Be sure you also look at the Credits page to see who deserves the credit for almost everything in this Bacalar section! They have done a fantastic job.

Check for current hours, but the last time we were there the hours were:

• Tuesday through Thursday: 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.
• Friday and Saturday: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.
• Sunday: 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.
• Monday: closed.

Some of the items from the museum are featured below:

Fountain purveyor

Calcareous Stone
19th Century

From the middle of the 18th century until the beginning of the War of the Castes (1847), Bacalar enjoyed a period of relative prosperity. This sculpture probably adorned the fountain of one of its manorial houses.

Cannon

The Fort of San Felipe was initially armed with 24 cannons from one to six inches caliber and later were added various more of 18 inches caliber.

Metate

Used since pre-hispanic times to crush the grains of corn (corn mill), the metate is a symbol of the millenary Mexican culture.

Mural

There is a mural by Elio Carmichael on the far wall of the museum. It is very impressive, especially in person — it is hard to photograph in one piece. The best we can do is show it from across the room with many other displays in the foreground.

Model of the Fort

There is also a nice model of the fort here.

For more text and photos of museum displays, see the pages on The Mayas, Pirates, and The War of the Castes.