Bacalar (pronounced as /es/) is the municipal seat and largest city in Bacalar Municipality (until 2011 a part of Othón P. Blanco Municipality) in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, about 40km (30miles) north of Chetumal. In the 2010 census the city had a population of 11,084.[1] At that time it was still part of Othón P. Blanco, and was its second-largest city (locality), after Chetumal.
The name most likely derives from Mayan languages: bʼak halal, (Sian Ka'an Bakhalal) meaning "surrounded by reeds",[2] the name of the locality attested at the time of the 16th century arrival of the Spanish.
Lake Bacalar, a lagoon, is on the east side of the town.
Bacalar was a city of the Maya civilization in Pre-Columbian times, and was founded in 415 A.D. with the name of "Sian Ka'an Bakhalal". It was the first city in the region that the Spanish Conquistadores succeeded in taking and holding, in 1543 (during the 1543–1544 Pachecos entrada). In 1545 Gaspar Pacheco established the Spanish town here with the name Salamanca de Bacalar with the help of Juan de la Cámara. The southern half of what is now Quintana Roo was governed from Bacalar, answerable to the Captain General of Yucatán in Mérida.
After pirates sacked the town in the 17th century, the Fortress de San Felipe Bacalar was completed in 1729, and may be visited today.
In 1848 Bacalar had a population of about 5,000. In 1848, during the Caste War of Yucatán, rebellious Chan Santa Cruz Maya conquered the town. It was retaken by the Mexicans in 1902.
Bacalar was named a "Pueblo Mágico" in 2006.
Between 2005 and 2010 so-called Russian Mennonites who speak German established a colony in Salamanca that had 967 inhabitants in 2010 and 1.175 in 2020. All inhabitants were Protestants and only one of those aged 15 and over was illiterate.[3]