Casa Crespo

Colonial-Era Glory in Downtown Mérida: A House and Pool Built around a Giant Ceiba Tree

With its aristocratic bones and authentic colonial-era architectural features, this beauty in the walkable center of Mérida offers a stylish, green retreat ideal for families or those seeking a serene oasis at the heart of the city. It's a true indoor-outdoor living space, lined with covered patios and lush with tropical vegetation, with the added allure of a fountain swimming with fish, a pool, and rooftop cactus garden patio.

The two-story colonial home is built around a lush interior courtyard anchored by a huge ceiba tree rising from its center. There are three bedrooms, and the primary bedroom’s bathroom has a big soaking tub and king-sized bed. Colorful tile floors imported from France bring the stark, soaring rooms to life, and furnishings are a mix of antique pieces and bright modern accents. Mexican art also dresses up the stone and concrete updates throughout, and the kitchen is fully contemporary, with concrete countertops and tiling, a stainless steel hob, and generous steel and glass French doors.

Layout

Lower level: Main living room with covered portico (open to garden), kitchen, queen-sized bedroom with bathroom in updated original cistern (with garden access), pool, courtyard garden

Upper level: King-sized primary suite with en-suite bathroom (soaking tub, shower), kids’ room with double/full-sized floor mattress with en-suite bathroom, open-air hallway with ceiba tree views and garden below

Outdoors: Tropical garden, ancient ceiba tree, antique fountain, dining pergola, covered porticos, pool

Around

As the capital city of Mexico’s Yucatán region, Mérida puts both ancient Mayan and the region’s Spanish colonial heritage on dazzling display. Colonial-era churches and residences occupy the city’s leafy plazas as do 4,000-year-old indigenous Mayan cultural fortresses and remains.

Located on a quiet street in downtown Mérida, this home is walking distance to two markets, dozens of local restaurants and several neighborhood cafes and art galleries, as well as the famous Paseo de Montejo’s elegant villas and concept stores. It offers ideal access to colonial Mérida’s pretty downtown, the stately area overlooked by the colonial cathedral and the Governmental Palace.

Mérida is known as “the white city,” an increasingly exciting urban area that’s latest draw is its inventive gastronomy. Exotic tropical produce fills local market stands, cocoa farms occupy dense jungle villages beyond the city limits, and pre-Columbian foods have been artfully reincarnated at the hands of locally focused young chefs who turn out contemporary versions of cochinitia pibil and papadzules.

One of the world’s seven wonders, Chitzen Itza is the most prominent of dozens of sacred Mayan temple sites accessible via day trips outside of town. The UNESCO-listed Mayan ruin of Uxmal is located about an hour and a half south of Mérida, and dozens of lesser-celebrated pyramids offer tours and a deep dive into Mayan culture. Pueblos mágicos Valladolid and Izmal are also close by and worth exploring. Cenotes, or natural sinkholes in the region’s limestone bedrock that once served as water supplies for the ancient Maya, are part of what define the Yucatán Peninsula, where more than 10,000 of these deep blue swimming holes are located. Each cenote is uniquely beautiful, and hundreds are accessible as lushly camouflaged swimming holes.

Location

Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. Nearest airport: Mérida (15 minutes)

Best time to visit

Year round