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:
Some of the items from the museum are featured below:
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.
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.
Used since pre-hispanic times to crush the
grains of corn (corn mill), the metate is a symbol
of the millenary Mexican culture.
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.
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.