The convent of Maní
The life of the inhabitants of Mani has been developed around the religious enclosure, its ample vestibule, the extensive orchard and themystical enchantment of the old franciscana construction. The facade of the temple and each corner of the building have colonial reminiscencias.
The open chapel or " of Indians ", the detail of the wrought stone arcade that surrounds the doors by wood, the inscriptions in the main entrance, the shield of the Orden Franciscana Menor, walking of stone and the architectonic disposition of the assembly is worthy of admiration.
In the convent of Maní, whose patrono is San Miguel Arcángel - winning of the Dragoon (Satan), according to the Sagradas Scriptures -, the time it seems to have stopped. The silence that floods the runners and the inner garden invites to the flight of the imagination of the visitor.It is almost possible to be glimpsed the tracks of the friars who lived there, to listen to the gregorianos songs or the sound of the chain dump with which water was extracted to water the orchard; also to perceive the aroma of the incense or the heat of the candles and veladoras ignited before a religious image, and consumed until the wax acquires capricious, fragile forms.
The Wednesday 29 of september - party of arcángeles Miguel, Gabriel and Rafael the convent of Peanut will turn 450 years of existence. He is " of legal age " that the Cathedral of Mérida, that the last year celebrated the fourth centenary of its construction. The locality of Maní is to 100 kilometers to the south of Mérida and 14 km to the east of Ticul, in the Route of the Convents.
History. - The convent was constructed with the work of about six thousand descendants of the Mayan dynasty of the Xiues towards 1549, according to the historians. The construction protects valuable jewels of colonial sacred art, like the seven wood altarpieces carved with columns of salomónico style that adorn presbiterio and the North and South walls of the main ship.
The architectonic design, work of Fray Juan de Mérida, includes structural elements of great beauty, as it is possible to be appreciated in the facade of the church and the open chapel. A stone statue of the Arcángel San Miguel complements the austere decoration of the facade. The history of the franciscano convent of Maní is also controversy source. In that place one took place the 12 of July of 1562 the first and only car of faith in Yucatan, in charge of Fray Diego de Landa.
According to volume I of the " Catalogue of Religious Constructions of Yucatan ", the colonial building is integrated by vestibule, temple, convent and orchard, the one that still is conserved.It has four chapels that are: those of the Shrine, Santo Sepulcro, Animas and the one of the Baptistry, covers all with vaults of tube, lower than those of the ship. The walls of the interior of the temple, flattened and painted to the lime, contrast with the altarpieces that engalanan the enclosure, as much the lateral ones as the power station, that emphasizes by the pale blue color that shines in columns and body.
In the mentioned catalogue also it is indicated: " the greater altarpiece, than covers the wall with the bottom of presbiterio, is of three bodies divided vertically by columns corintias, between which and filling the spaces, are niches with sculptures of saints, except the last body that has a low relief representing the Eternal Father ".
Four religious wood images, apparently those of greater antigûedad, are in the main altarpiece. It is possible to identify San Pedro, San Pablo and San Francisco de Asís.
The text of religious constructions emphasizes the beauty of the altar dedicated to San Antonio: " It is of a single body, divided vertically by four cariátides and ordered by primorosos under reliefs, that make of him a unit between the very counted altarpieces that are conserved in Yucatan ". The one of the Virgin of the Light is of two bodies and ornamented with style columns corintio. To the north of the ship of the temple they are the altarpieces of the Virgin of Asunción, of Pasión or Painful Mater, Santa Lucia and the Sagrada Family.The one of Asunción is similar to the one of the Virgin of the Light, but with salomónicas columns; the others, although also have fine adornments, less are detailed than the previous ones. In the area where the convent worked, the corridors of the ground floor still keep fragments from religious painting pictorial mural and other elements that denote the architectonic importance that it had at another time.
By: Diario de Yucatan / Cityview Adaptation
Este sitio es elaborado por Enlaces y Comunicaciones del Sureste, S.A. de C.V.
en coordinación con El Diario de Yucatán
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