The Auto de Fé at Maní, Yucatán, 1562

The Auto de Fe of Maní (1562) was a very significant historical event, carried out by
the monastic inquisitor, Fray Diego de Landa (León Cázares 2003). In this public event, hundreds of indigenous people were condemned and punished for various crimes related to what the friars called ‘idolatry’ (Scholes, Adams 1938). In addition, dozens of hieroglyphic codices (or books) and thousands of Maya cultural objects considered ‘idolatrous’, including tens of thousands of ceramic and wooden ‘idols’, were burned as a final act of extirpation (Carrillo y Ancona 1979). The aim of this project is to offer a VR experience that showed the most significant parts of this important event.

The Auto de Fé was a public event where perople was forced out to change their religious beliefs, by embracing a new religion, as well as destroying their former religious symbols, such as idols, codices and many other assets.

A virtual recostruction of the village of Maní, depicting a complex cremonial event.