6 Years After Collapse, Tekantó Convent Still Crumbles

Six years after part of its bell tower came crashing down, the old Franciscan convent in Tekantó is still waiting for repairs.

The convent of San Agustín, now a secular parish under the Archdiocese of Yucatán, was built in 1576, with a corridor added in the 18th century. In June 2020, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Cristóbal soaked into the structure and brought down the espadaña — the convent’s 16th-century, two-tiered bell wall — damaging the front archway and part of the sacristy annex.

Since then, residents have filed request after request with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, known as INAH, which oversees historic sites like this one. The agency’s response has amounted to clearing debris that blocked the side entrance and cordoning off the damaged archway — not the structural repair the community has been asking for.

“It seems like the longer this goes on, the more they’ve forgotten there was ever a great bell tower here,” said Armando Chablé Martínez, a Tekantó resident. “I think that’s exactly what the authorities want — for it to never be restored. I hope something really does get done, because the convent is part of our town’s history and its image.”

A neighbor who lives next to the church recalled the day the tower fell: the sudden noise, the dust, watching a piece of the town’s history collapse in real time. Officials cleared the debris and cordoned off the site, she said, and promised a restoration that never came.

That debris removal, completed a few months ago, briefly raised hopes that a full restoration project was finally moving forward. Nothing has happened since. Other parts of the convent are now showing signs of neglect too, and residents worry another section could come down.

Tekantó’s case is one of several aging colonial churches across the Yucatán Peninsula stuck in similar limbo, waiting on INAH and, in some cases, other at-risk churches facing the same bottleneck between local pleas and federal budgets. In Izamal, less than an hour away, a much larger convent has faced its own long fight against deterioration.

Fast Facts

• Convent of San Agustín, Tekantó: built 1576; corridor added in the 18th century
• June 2020: Tropical Storm Cristóbal triggered the bell tower’s collapse
• Repairs since: debris cleared, damaged area cordoned off — no structural restoration
• Oversight: Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)

With reporting from Por Esto!