SANTA RITA

Santa Rita is located under the modern town Corozal. Only one structure is open to the public, the largest building in the center of the complex. Important during post-classic period, it was occupied until the Spanish came in the 1500s.

Santa Rita has been identified as the city of Chetumal or Chactemal as it was called many years ago. Believed to have been founded around 2000 BC, this city has shown remarkable longevity. Situated on the New River, Rio Hondo and the Bay of Chetumal it was at the right location for success with its main trade items of cacao, honey and vanilla. It dominated all these trade routes in the early classic period. It declined in the late classic but true to the endurance of Santa Rita it rose once again, and more prominent than before. According to the Spanish, Santa Rita was the capital of one of the nineteen remaining Mayan political entities. The Spanish went south with a remarkable thirst for gold. They were not being very successful until they came to Chetumal, the only place they had come to so far that actually had the precious metal. They took the town only to be thrown out again during a rebellion by the local Mayan warlord. They marched up to the Yucatan and destroyed all of the city’s trade routes instead of simply conquering the north. Without the trade that had supported it for so long, the city finally fell and was abandoned. Eventually the city of Corozal, founded in the 1800’s, encroached the ruins.

The one structure that exists is from the classic period. It contains a complex series of rooms with a ceremonial center room and two burial chambers. One was the chamber of an elderly woman with some pottery and jewelry. The second contained a warlord buried with a flint bar used for ceremonial purposes, a stingray spine for bloodletting ceremonial purposes and some Andean pottery.

Excavation began in the early 1900s but by then the town of Corozal was endangering a large part of the ruin. Located on the outskirts of Corozal, the site is easily accessible. This once proud town was subject to abuse from the residents of Corozal who found its stone useful for the foundations of their houses.