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Mérida main square
Merida was founded on January 6, 1542, by Francisco de Montejo y Leon, El Mozo, -The young- in the Mayan town of Iccaanzihó, also known as Tho. It was achieved by the Montejo’s’ after fifteen years of struggle against the Mayas that inhabited this land. This long gestation determined the history of the city.
It was called Merida because of
“the many buildings of lime and chalked well carved and with many moldings” that the Spaniards found in the Mayan city and that evoked to them the Merida of Spain. The Merida Augusta stood in memory of the Roman Caesar Augustus when Spain was part of Romania. The Greeks had a whole ritual to found the cities, the polis, and the Romans adopted it.