Square, Plaza sights in Quito
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A
Plaza Grande
While wandering around colonial Quito, you'll probably pass through the Plaza Grande (formally known as Plaza de la Independencia) several times. The austere white building on the northwest side of the plaza (between Chile and Espejo) with the national flag flying atop is the Palacio del Gobierno (Presidential Palace; García Moreno). The president does indeed carry out business in this building, so sightseeing is limited to the entrance. Inside, a mural depicts Francisco de Orellana's descent of the Amazon. The guard at the gate may allow you in to take a look.
On the southwest side of the plaza stands Quito's recently painted cathedral with religious paintings by…
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B
Plaza San Francisco
Walking from the old town's narrow colonial streets into the open Plaza San Francisco reveals one of the finest sights in all of Ecuador - a sweeping cobblestone plaza backed by the long whitewashed walls and twin bell towers of Ecuador's oldest church, the Monastery of San Francisco. With its giant plaza and its mountainous backdrop of Volcán Pichincha this is surely one of Quito's highlights.
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C
Plaza Santo Domingo
Near the southwest end of Calle Guayaquil, Plaza Santo Domingo is a regular haunt for street performers, and crowds of neighborhood quiteños fill the plaza to watch pouting clowns and half-cocked magicians do their stuff. The plaza is especially attractive in the evening when the domes of the 17th-century Church of Santo Domingo, on the southeast side of the plaza, are floodlit.
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D
Plaza del Teatro
Northeast of the Plaza Grande, at the junction of Calles Guayaquil and Manabí, is the tiny Plaza del Teatro, where you'll find - along with microphone-toting preachers, protestors and hollering newspaper peddlers - the exquisitely restored Teatro Sucre. Built in 1878, it is Quito's most sophisticated theater.
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