Inside Yucatan

Exploring forgotten regions of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Susana Ordovas and photographer Guido Taroni uncover the faded splendor of both neglected and restored homes.

Susana Ordovas's Inside Yucatan is an ode to the merging of the ancient with the contemporary. At the turn of the 20th century, more millionaires lived in Merida than in any other city in the world, building and transforming breathtaking, lavish homes nestled into the surrounding tropical greenery like hidden jewels. Over time, nature conquered, leaving crumbling structures in place of what were once vibrant, ornately-decorated estates. But today, Ordovas reveals, Yucatan's "forsaken, decaying ruins, remnants of an illustrious past . . . are awakening from a centuries-old siesta."

Here, in Guido Taroni's evocative new photographs of 27 residences across the peninsula, in such places as Izamal, Merida, and Valladolid, decadence and beauty shine through what remains of the homes' diverse, contrasting styles, from colonial to Renaissance, Medieval to Moorish, and occasionally a combination of all. Setting the houses in context, three specially commissioned maps of the region have been beautifully illustrated by renowned artist Jesus Cisneros. In her detailed commentary, Ordovas celebrates their eccentric, distressed charm and hails the revival of this magical land.