The restoration work on the Ateneo Peninsular will end at the end of the year; The building will come into operation at the beginning of 2024, revealed Anna Goycoolea Artís, head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Yucatán.
The specialist, who is also an archaeologist, indicated that work will also begin on the upper floor of the site, which will become a museum with the support of the federal Ministry of Culture and the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur).
He emphasized that, together with the Mayan Train project, the INAH has been able to recover, both the property and the administrative and legal part, the Ateneo Peninsular, which has allowed the first stage of restoration of the facility to be carried out.
“In addition to the restoration, laboratories were also installed for the collection, safekeeping, and restoration of pieces recovered in archaeological salvages; Work on the first floor is already being completed, which will open its doors at the beginning of 2024. The second stage of intervention has begun, during which the general restoration of the two floors will be consolidated,” he explained.
Likewise, he stated that the exhibition halls of the Mayan Train and the Museum of History of the People of Yucatán will be installed in that place, where in the same way a single INAH window will be set up to attend to the procedures linked to the Zone of Historical Monuments of Mérida, a store-bookstore, selling crafts from the National Fund for the Promotion of Crafts, and a cafe-restaurant, open to the general public.
“The work began last year, in April, with more than 120 people who are working hard to consolidate this, from restaurateurs, engineers, and architects, among others; In one of the rooms, the exhibition called Recovered Heritage will be displayed, which will exhibit pieces found precisely by the INAH archaeologists during the work of the Mayan Train,” he noted.
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