After leaving Merida early to spend two days in Valladolid, we decided a place to have lunch was in . Izamal. It was about half way and is one of Mexico’s “Magical Towns”. The reviews said that all the colonial buildings, the market, and the huge convent, are painted egg-yolk yellow, the color of the sun and of corn. In 1993, Pope John Paul II made a special pilgrimage to Izamal to pledge the Catholic Church’s support of the Mayan people. While there, he performed a mass and presented the church’s statue of the Virgin Mary with a silver crown. Before

We entered the town in the glow of the yellow buildings along the street, the sound of the clippity-clop of horses pulling “calesas” (their main mode of travel) on the cobblestones and the old iron lampposts gave us the feeling this stop was a good choice. Without getting out of the car, the town appeared to be calm and not in a hurry. The streets were clean indicating a pride in the town.

Before the Spanish conquest of Yucatan (1527-1547) Izamal was a pilgrimage site as early as 1000 BC. Izamal had become the most important religious center in northern Yucatan from 300-600 AD.The city was considered by the Mayans to be the home of Kinichkakmo, the sun god, and of the god Itzam Na (the name Izamal derives from). Itzam Na was a deity of healing and resurrection, the creator of arts and writing, and the introducer of many important agricultural items. In 1553, the enslaved Mayans were forced to dismantle the top of an enormous pyramid, and build a church and a convent in the center of the now truncated pyramid. The convent when completed in 1564. Since the completion of the new church, miracles of healing began to occur.

Diego de Landa Calderón (1524 –1579) the Spanish bishop of the Yucatan destroyed most of that civilization's written history, literature, and traditions. The church campus consists of the St. Anthony of Padua monastery, church and convent. Inside the buildings are many church artifacts, statues and remembrances of the Pope John Paul II’ s visit to Izamal