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> Homepage > Welcome > Destinations > Chetumal & the South >   Bacalar
 Bacalar figures prominently in the history of the area. Known to the Maya as Bak?Halal or ‘place of the reeds’, it was the most important community in the ancient principality of Uaymil, and the region most warred against by the Spanish during the Conquest. The Maya put up terrific resistance, but conquistador Gaspar Pacheco was cruel and determined enough to win a victory of sorts, and the respite to found Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar in 1545.
The settlement was never a success nor at all productive during the Colonial period. The Indians were hostile and refused to work, and the colonists feared them. However, while it survived it operated as a port for goods bound for Europe (its lagoonside location giving it access to the sea via Chetumal Bay). Merchandise from all over the region, and as far away as Honduras and Guatemala filled its warehouses. Exports included palo de tinte or dyewood, and rumor of the city’s wealth soon made it the target of every pirate in the Caribbean.
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© 2004 Editorial Veras. La guía Oficial del Caribe Mexicano.