La Merced

The Church of La Merced was the first convent and church founded after the initiative of four Mercedarian friars from Guatemala in 1537. The convent of La Merced was built in 1537, when Francisco Marroquin brought four Mercedarians, two of which: Fray Pedro Barrientos and Fray Pedro Benítez de Lugo, stayed in this Ciudad Real, to start the foundation of the order. The other Mercedarians: Fray Juan Zambrano and Fray Marcos Pérez Dardón, did not stay long in the city, leaving the convent even though the City Council had already granted a plot of land on March 18, 1537. In the Cabildo Act held on March 10, On November 1539, Fray Marcos Pérez Dardón returned to Ciudad Real after having founded a convent in Guatemala.

The simplicity of its architecture is due to the little influence that this order had on the religious and civil life of the province. The interior of the sacristy preserves the original construction of a Roman arch guarded by two lions, symbolizing Spanish rule and decorated with floral motifs and mortar reliefs representing the sun and the moon. The other Mercedarian convent was later a municipal jail, for this reason the tower that characterizes it was added and now houses the Amber Museum of Chiapas.