Maní - Church of San Miguel

From Oxkutzcab, only 7km/4.3mi beyond Lol-tún, it is worth making a detour to the little town of Maní, 10km/6mi to the north.

Historically this was a place of some importance. About ad 1450, after the destruction of Mayapán, the Xiú tribe, coming from the Uxmal area, founded the town, prophetically calling it Maní ("it is all over" in Maya). The subsequent period, until the arrival of the Spaniards, saw the decline of the great Maya civilisation and the disintegration of the Maya empire into some twenty warring city states, the most important of which was the Xiú city of Maní. The fall of the Maya empire facilitated the Spanish conquest of the country. The last ruler of Maní, Titul-Xiú, surrendered to the conqueror of Yucatán, Francisco de Montejo, in 1542 and became a convert to Christianity.

In 1562 the main square of Maní was the scene of the great auto-da-fé in which Bishop Diego de Landa burned all known Maya manuscripts as works of the devil, with the sole exception of three codices.

The imposing church of San Miguel was founded by the Franciscans. Maní also has a cenote (sacrificial well) which is the subject of many legends.