Photo Essays / Hacienda Details

Hacienda Details

Many architectural details and finishes found in Yucatan haciendas are also used when restoring colonial homes.

In early hacienda construction, plaster sconces were sculpted into the corners of walls, up high near the ceiling. They held torches, candles or oil lamps. This modern version uses electricity. <a href=></a> The comedor or diningroom at Hacienda Uayalceh still has furniture left behind when it was abandoned after the Revolution. A caretaker continues to live at the hacienda, but does not eat here. <a href=></a> A typical hacienda door is quite tall, often nine feet high, made of hardwoods without nails and treated in linseed oil. The windows in the top half let the breezes in, while the bars keep the bats out. <a href=></a> This is an aquaducto or stone waterway used to irrigate the orchards and fields. They were usually fed from a noria or large holding tank constructed of limestone. In restored haciendas the noria is often converted into a swimming pool. <a href=></a> Most haciendas feature many perfect (half round) arches, slender columns of local limestone and are often adorned with a symbol or logo representing the hacienda. <a href=></a> Words fail us sometimes... This is a detail of the very old chicum finish on the grand stairway at Hacienda Tabi. <a href=></a> Most exterior ventanas or windows have sculpted plaster awnings for adornment and to prevent the heavy Yucatan rains from entering. <a href=></a> Another common finish is achieved by adding tierra roja (red earth) to the plaster. The Mayan word for this is kancab. <a href=></a> While the stenciling on these walls is exceptionally elaborate, the bigas or roofing beams are representative of the construction used in most haciendas. <a href=></a> Although somewhat rare, there were hacendados who imported sculpture to enhance the hacienda's fachada or façades. This statue is one part of a group representing the four seasons and can be seen at Yaxcopoil. <a href=></a> On many perimeter walls, a trowel is used to create a pattern that is filled with small stones, as on this aged chichum wall. <a href=></a> The plaster on this unrestored hacienda has mostly fallen away, exposing the mamposteria construction beneath, which is an aggregate of large and small limestone rocks held together with mortar. <a href=></a> This is an aged kancab wall that demonstrates another populer stone pattern. <a href=></a>

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