Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico


Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

⭐ Core Definition: Spanish Colonial architecture

Spanish colonial architecture represents Spanish colonial influence on the cities and towns of its former colonies, and is still seen in the architecture as well as in the city planning aspects of conserved present-day cities. These two visible aspects of the city are connected and complementary. The 16th-century Laws of the Indies included provisions for the layout of new colonial settlements in the Americas and elsewhere.

To achieve the desired effect of inspiring awe among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as creating a legible and militarily manageable landscape, the early colonizers used and placed the new architecture within planned townscapes and mission compounds.

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Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Zacatecas

Zacatecas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Zacatecas, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. It is divided into 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas.

It is located in north-central Mexico and is bordered by the states of Durango to the northwest, Coahuila to the north, Nayarit to the west, San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León to the east, and Jalisco, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes to the south. The state is best known for its rich deposits of silver and other minerals, its colonial architecture and its importance during the Mexican Revolution. Its main economic activities are mining, agriculture and tourism.

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Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Visual art of the United States

Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization, there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial architecture and the accompanying styles in other media were quickly in place. Early colonial art on the East Coast initially relied on artists from Europe, with John White (1540-c. 1593) the earliest example. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists primarily painted portraits, and some landscapes in a style based mainly on English painting. Furniture-makers imitating English styles and similar craftsmen were also established in the major cities, but in the English colonies, locally made pottery remained resolutely utilitarian until the 19th century, with fancy products imported.

But in the later 18th century two U.S. artists, Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, became the most successful painters in London of history painting, then regarded as the highest form of art, giving the first sign of an emerging force in Western art. American artists who remained at home became increasingly skilled, although there was little awareness of them in Europe. In the early 19th century the infrastructure to train artists began to be established, and from 1820 the Hudson River School began to produce Romantic landscape painting that were original and matched the huge scale of U.S. landscapes. The American Revolution produced a demand for patriotic art, especially history painting, while other artists recorded the frontier country. A parallel development taking shape in rural U.S. was the American craft movement, which began as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution.

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Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Comayagua

Comayagua (Spanish pronunciation: [komaˈʝaɣwa]) is a city, municipality and old capital of Honduras, located 80 km (50 mi) northwest of Tegucigalpa on the highway to San Pedro Sula and 594 m (1,949 ft) above sea level.

The accelerated growth experienced by the city of Comayagua led the municipal authorities to structure a territorial reorganization plan. Between the years of 1945 -1975 the population of the city quadrupled due to the high rate of population growth achieved at that time (4.8%) and to migratory movements in the interior of the country. In 2023 the estimated population of the city was 120,500. It is the capital of the Comayagua department of Honduras and it is noted for its wealth of Spanish Colonial architecture. The cathedral, at the central square, has the oldest clock in the Americas.

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Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Muisca architecture

The Muisca, inhabiting the central highlands of the Colombian Andes (Altiplano Cundiboyacense and the southwestern part of that the Bogotá savanna), were one of the four great civilizations of the Americas. Unlike the three civilizations in present-day Mexico and Peru (the Aztec, Maya, and the Incas), they did not construct grand architecture of solid materials. While specialising in agriculture and gold-working, cloths and ceramics, their architecture was rather modest and made of non-permanent materials as wood and clay.

Evidence for the Muisca architecture relies on archaeological excavations performed since the mid 20th century. In recent years larger areas showing evidence of the Early Muisca architecture have been uncovered, the biggest of them in Soacha, Cundinamarca. All of the original houses and temples have been destroyed by the Spanish conquerors and replaced with colonial architecture. Reconstructions of some houses (bohíos) and the most important temple in the Muisca religion; the Temple of the Sun in Sogamoso, called Sugamuxi by the Muisca, have been built in the second half of the 20th century.

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Spanish Colonial architecture in the context of Tlatelolco (Mexico City)

Tlatelolco (Classical Nahuatl: Tlatelōlco [tɬateˈloːɬko], or Tlatilōlco, modern Nahuatl pronunciation from tlalli - land; telolli - hill; co - place; lit.'In the little hill of land') is an area now within the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Square of Three Cultures). Its archeological history extends to remains from the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as more recent colonial structures.

The square is bounded by an excavated Aztec archaeological site, the 16th century college church designed by Fray Juan de Torquemada and dedicated to St James the Great (known as Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco), the remains of a former Franciscan convent to which was formerly attached the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, and an office complex that was used by the Ministry of Foreign Relations and is now the property of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

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