Izamal is a beautiful town founded in the mid-16th century on the remains of an ancient Mayan city. This magic town goes by different names.
Some know it as “City of the Hills”, alluring Izamal’s pyramids. Others call it “The City of the Three Cultures”, for it combines features of its pre-Hispanic past, colonial period and the present time.
However, within all of its titles, the winner turns out to be “The Yellow City of Yucatán”.
Why is Izamal known as Yucatán’s ‘Yellow City’?
It takes only a glance to decipher why Izamal is nicknamed the yellow city. Once visitors arrive in this small town, their eyes will be greeted by hues of gold.
Currently, by the will of the locals and authorities, the town continues to be painted yellow and white, preserving its folkloric spirit of elegance and tradition.
There’s no specific story that explains why the people of Izamal decided to coat their buildings with yellowish hues. Still, there have been different versions regarding the meaning behind this color.
Stories behind Izamal’s colorful nickname
The first version has to do with ancient remedies. Yucatán’s climate is humid, which is perfect for mosquitos. So, in order to keep them aways and prevent diseases, the town decided to paint all of their houses of yellow, since they thought that it’s a color that drives off said insect.
Another story claims that Izamal chose this color to remember Pope John Paul II’s visit to Mexico in August 1993. This version ensures that the people wanted to identify with the Vatican, since it was known that the Catholic state used yellow tones.
A third version is based on Mexico’s culture. The Mayans considered the yellow as a sacred color because they associated it to corn, one of their main foods. Thus, Izamal’s inhabitants decided to use this color to remember their cultural inheritance.
The final version, and one of the most famous, tells us that the town’s houses began to be painted in yellow around the 1850s, when the henequen business, the cultivation of an agave to obtain fiber, had declined.
It was necessary to give a boost to the place by unifying it. Years passed until, in 1993, many inhabitants decided to join together by painting their houses with yellow, a color that would radiate joy to everyone within Izamal.
Whether you walk the corridors of the San Antonio de Padua Convent, the fifth convent built in Yucatán, travel back in time with the Izamal Archaeological Zone, or delight your palate with exquisite local dishes, visiting “The Yellow City of Yucatán” will be a trip which you won’t regret.
Images from: Gaby Flores
