Ciudad Amurallada de Campeche

Campeche still gets referred to as the Ciudad Amurallada de San Francisco de Campeche, a long way of saying The Walled City of San Francisco de Campeche. Unique in Mexico and maybe in Latin America, it looks like the quintessential site for pirates to loot and raid, and hundreds of years later, it still bears all of that charm and intrigue.

The capital of the state of Campeche, it was founded in 1540 and fortified (i.e.; the walls went up) in the 17th century. You guessed it. The walls were intended to protect the town from pirate attacks. The walls, access gates, bastions, and nearby forts are mostly still there although today they protect a historical legacy that is simply to good to be forgotten.

The town has a colonial urban layout. Cobblestone streets are lined with brightly colored little houses that give you the sense that the entire place could be a museum. It was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. To visit is to quickly see why. 

Among the most representative sites in town are:

• The two town entrances, La Puerta de Tierra and La Puerta de Mar

• The Bastian of San Carlos, one of the original defensive structures, today it houses the City Museum.

• El Baluarte de San Francisco, a key surveillance point

• 59th and 55th streets, where the past comes alive with cafes, galleries, and specialty shops

• The Baluartes de Santa Rosa and San Juan, where defensive cannons still help tell the story of the old town and its place on the shore 

To walk the walled city is to experience a unique and nearly lost colonial atmosphere that is much imitated but seldom seen or even believed. All the Jack Sparrows in the world don\'t quite prepare you for the real pirates of a Caribbean veiled in legend and lore.   To visit Campeche is to see the source of stories many of us have heard since childhood, and to finally have it all add up.

Late afternoons, a number of video projections will begin to illuminate just what happened and when. Campeche reached its zenith in the 16th and 17th centuries but it retains a dreamlike countenance that visitors will take to and never forget.

GETTING THERE

Of course, most visitors will arrive to Campeche via the Tren Maya. The station is just minutes from the center of town.  Of course, the airport in Campeche is almost as close. But today travelers often prefer the train trip after an affordable flight to Cancun, Tulum, or Palenque and then the charm of the train ride to Campeche. There are also frequent buses from other Tren Maya stations within the state of Campeche.