José María Morelos, Q.R. — Restoration work is progressing on the ancestral Visiting Chapel of X-Querol. The temple, built by Franciscan evangelizers between the 16th and 17th centuries, was the scene of the Mayan social war.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says with the sum of federal and state efforts, the bell tower and one of the towers and the façade, is being attended to.
Considered a viceregal jewel built by the Franciscans, the chapel is undergoing reconstruction and restoration work after heavy rains in August of 2023 collapsed one of its towers and its bell tower.
Both the temple and the entire community, belonging to the municipality of José María Morelos near the border with the state of Yucatán, have a special ancestry since they were part of the places that witnessed the outbreak and development of the Mayan social war which began in 1847 and concluded in 1901.
The Visitation Chapel was destroyed and the town, which was then called Celul, entered a period of abandonment that lasted for almost a century until 1971, when new inhabitants repopulated the town and began to rescue the church to return it to its religious use.
To date, the property continues to be visited, that is, it does not have a local priest, but is visited periodically by priests from nearby communities to offer spiritual services to the population.
The restoration of the temple began in January 2024 and, in recent days, received a supervision visit from representatives of the federal government and the state of Quintana Roo, states that invest joint resources to care for the property.