Architecture sights in South America
-
Cerro Concepción
Cerro Concepción is one of the most delightful of all Valparaíso's neighborhoods, with its brightly painted corrugated iron facades and pitched roofs. To get there, take the city's oldest elevator, Ascensor Concepción (also known as Ascensor Turri) from the corner of Prat and Carreño, across from the Reloj Turri (clock tower).
reviewed
-
A
Arcos da Lapa
The landmark aqueduct dates from the mid-1700s when it was built to carry water from the Carioca River to downtown Rio. In a style reminiscent of ancient Rome, the 42 arches stand 64m high. Today, it carries the famous bonde on its way to and from Santa Teresa atop the hill.
reviewed
-
B
Galerías Pacífico
Covering an entire city block, this beautiful French-style shopping center dates from 1889 and boasts vaulted ceilings with paintings done in 1954 by muralists Antonio Berni, Juan Carlos Castagnino, Manuel Colmeiro, Lino Spilimbergo and Demetrio Urruchúa. All were adherents of the nuevo realismo (new realism) school of Argentine art. For many years the building was semiabandoned, but a joint Argentine-Mexican team repaired and restored the murals in 1992.
reviewed
-
C
Roman Catholic Kathedraal
One of the largest wooden structures in the world, Paramaribo's Petrus and Paulus Cathedral was built in 1885 to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire. It is an impressive, if slightly rickety, structure with a beautifully ornate carved wooden interior. Restoration work is ongoing so expect some scaffolding. Check out the views from the spires if you can.
reviewed
-
D
Santuário Dom Bosco
Santuário Dom Bosco is made of 80 concrete columns that support 7500 pieces of illuminated Murano glass symbolizing a starry sky, and which cast a blue submarine glow over the pews. The central chandelier weighs 2.5 tonnes and adds an amazing 435 light bulbs’ worth of energy to the monthly electricity bill.
reviewed
-
E
Catedral Metropolitana
Overlooking Parque de Bolívar, the vast Catedral Metropolitana boasts a neo-Romanesque design. Construction began in 1875 and was completed in 1931. Its spacious but dim interior has Spanish stained-glass windows and a German-made pipe organ.
reviewed
-
F
Ermita de la Veracruz
Ermita de la Veracruz is the city’s oldest church. Its construction was reputedly begun in 1682, but it wasn’t inaugurated until 1803. It has a stone facade and a white-and-gold interior.
reviewed
-
Igreja de São Francisco de Assis
The Igreja de São Francisco de Assis is an architectural delight and the paintings by Portinari are beautiful.
reviewed
-
G
La Catedral
Started in 1559 and taking almost a hundred years to build, the Catedral squats on the site of Inca Viracocha's palace and was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Saqsaywamán. The cathedral is joined with Iglesia del Triunfo (1536) to its right and Iglesia de Jesús María (1733) to the cathedral's left. El Triunfo, Cuzco's oldest church, also houses a vault containing the remains of the famous Inca historian, Garcilaso de la Vega.
Born in Cuzco in 1539, whose remains were only recently returned to Cuzco by the king and queen of Spain.
The cathedral is one of the city's greatest repositories of colonial art, especially for works from the escuela cuzqu…
reviewed
-
H
Monastery of 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.
Construction of the monastery began only a few weeks after the founding of Quito in 1534, but the building was not finished until 70 years later. It is the city's largest colonial structure. The founder was the Franciscan missionary Joedco Ricke, who is credited with being the fir…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
I
Catedral Primada
The Plaza de Bolívar's dominating building, facing from the northeast corner, is the neoclassical Catedral Primada, which stands on the site where the first mass may have been celebrated after Bogotá had been founded in 1538 (some historians argue it happened at Plazoleta del Chorro de Quevedo, just east). Either way, it’s Bogotá’s largest. The original simple thatched chapel was replaced by a more substantial building in 1556–65, which later collapsed due to poor foundations. In 1572 the third church went up, but the earthquake of 1785 reduced it to ruins. Only in 1807 was the massive building – that stands to this day – initiated and it was successfully completed by 18…
reviewed
-
J
Templo y Convento de la Merced
Cuzco’s third most important colonial church, La Merced was destroyed in the 1650 earthquake, but was quickly rebuilt. To the left of the church, at the back of a small courtyard, is the entrance to the monastery and museum. Paintings based on the life of San Pedro Nolasco, who founded the order of La Merced in Barcelona in 1218, hang on the walls of the beautiful colonial cloister.
The church on the far side of the cloister contains the tombs of two of the most famous conquistadors: Diego de Almagro and Gonzalo Pizarro (brother of Francisco). Also on the far side of the cloister is a small religious museum that houses vestments rumored to have belonged to conquistador …
reviewed
-
K
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
One of Lima’s most storied religious sites, the Iglesia de Santo Domingo and its expansive monastery are built on land granted to the Dominican Friar Vicente de Valverde, who accompanied Pizarro throughout the conquest and was instrumental in persuading him to execute the captured Inca Atahualpa. Originally completed in the 16th century, this impressive pink church has been rebuilt and remodeled at various points since. It is most renowned as the final resting place for three important Peruvian saints: San Juan Macías, Santa Rosa de Lima and San Martín de Porres (the continent’s first black saint). The convent – a sprawling courtyard-studded complex lined with baroque p…
reviewed
-
L
Convento de Santa Teresa
The most interesting building in town is the noble, timeworn Convento de Santa Teresa. Visits to this timeless and gracefully decaying complex are by guided tour only and provide a snapshot of the extraordinary lives led by the cloistered nuns that inhabit it. You see the peaceful cloister, fine altarpieces and sculptures (from Spanish and Potosí schools), the convent church, and even get to ascend to the roof for a glorious view over the city. The convent was founded in 1760, then destroyed in an earthquake; the new church was built with an excess of ambition, and was too big to be domed. The existing church was built inside it in 1790. There’s still a Carmelite communit…
reviewed
-
M
Cathedral
On the plaza’s southwest side stands Quito’s cathedral. Although not the most ornate of the old town’s churches, its interior has some fascinating religious works from artists of the Quito School. Don’t miss the painting of the Last Supper, with Christ and disciples feasting on cuy (roast guinea pig), chicha (a fermented corn drink) and humitas (similar to tamales). The Nativity painting includes a llama and a horse peering over the newborn Jesus. You’ll also see the ornate tomb of Mariscal Sucre, the leading figure of Quito’s independence. Behind the main altar is a plaque showing where President Gabriel García Moreno died on August 6, 1875. He was slashed with a…
reviewed
-
Calle Quijarro
North of the Iglesia de San Agustín, Calle Quijarro narrows as it winds between a wealth of colonial buildings, many with doorways graced by old family crests. It's thought that the bends in Calle Quijarro were an intentional attempt to inhibit the cold winds that would otherwise whistle through and chill everything in their path. This concept is carried to extremes on the Pasaje de Siete Vueltas - 'the passage of seven turns'.
During colonial times Calle Quijarro was the street of potters, but it's now known for its hat makers. One millinery worth visiting is that of Don Antonio Villa Chavarría (Quijarro 41).
The intersection of Calles Quijarro and Modesto Omiste, furth…
reviewed
-
N
Pampulha District
Fans of modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer won't want to miss his creations dotted around a huge artificial lake in the Pampulha district. Juscelino Kubitschek, mayor of Belo at the time, commissioned the recent architectural school graduate in the early 1940s. Niemeyer's Igreja de São Francisco de Assis is an architectural delight, with some beautiful Portinari paintings inside.
The Casa do Baile, a former dance hall that has had extensive renovations and now holds temporary art exhibits. Its on-site cafe is a lovely place to take a break.
The Museu de Arte de Belo Horizonte, with its cute garden designed by renowned landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, is also worth …
reviewed
-
O
Iglesia San Marcos
Arica’s oddest attraction is also its most admired. The Gothic-style Iglesia San Marcos has a threefold claim to fame. First, it was designed by celebrated Parisian engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, before his success with the Eiffel Tower. Second, it was prefabricated in Eiffel’s Paris shop in the 1870s (at the order of the Peruvian president), then shipped right around the world to be assembled on site. Still more curious is the construction itself: the entire church is made of stamped and molded cast iron, coated with paint. That’s everything from its unusually thin walls to its pillars, beams and pointy arches; only the door is wooden. The resulting atmosphere is s…
reviewed
-
P
Igreja de NS de Candelária
The construction of the original church to Our Lady of Candelária (dating from the late 16th century), on the present site, was credited to a ship’s captain who had almost been shipwrecked at sea. Upon his safe return he vowed to build a church to her. A later design led to its present-day grandeur, which rated Igreja de NS de Candelária among the largest and wealthiest churches of imperial Brazil. The interior is a spectacular combination of baroque and Renaissance styles. The ceiling above the nave features six large panels that depict the romanticized version of the sea captain’s journey and the subsequent origin of the church. The cupola, fabricated entirely from …
reviewed
-
Q
La Compañía de Jesús
On Calle Sucre, is Ecuador’s most ornate church, La Compañía de Jesús, capped by green-and-gold domes visible from Plaza San Francisco one block away. The marvelously gilded Jesuit church was begun in 1605 and not completed for another 160 years. Free guided tours in English or Spanish highlight the church’s unique features including its Moorish elements, perfect symmetry (right down to the trompe l’oeil staircase at the rear), symbolic elements (bright-red walls a reminder of Christ’s blood) and its syncretism (Ecuadorian plants and indigenous faces hidden along the pillars). Quiteños proudly call it the most beautiful church in the country and it’s easy to s…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
R
Templo da Boa Vontade
The Templo da Boa Vontade was created by the Legion of Goodwill in 1989 as a symbol of universal solidarity. It incorporates seven pyramids, joined to form a cone that is topped with the biggest raw crystal you will ever see (it weighs in at 21kg). To view it, you must take off your shoes and walk along the spiraling inner circle via the black path. You must return on the white path (do not screw this up). It’s all a bit dizzying. There is also an interesting Egyptian room for meditation (R$2) that will make you feel like King Tut (of course, they take all of this very seriously, so let’s keep these jokes between us). Get there on bus 105 or 107 from the city bus station.…
reviewed
-
La Mano en la Arena
Punta del Este's most famous landmark is the monster-sized hand emerging from the sands of Playa Brava. La Mano en la Arena, sculpted in iron and cement by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal in 1982, won first prize in a monumental art contest that year and has been a Punta fixture ever since. The hand exerts a magnetic attraction over visitors to Punta, who climb and jump off its digits and pose for thousands of photos with it every year.
Up close, the hand is starting to show its age. There's graffiti scrawled all over it, and its ungraceful cement base often gets exposed by shifting sands. But watch out - the hand's still likely to reach out and grab you!
reviewed
-
S
Monasterio de Carmen Alto
On one side of the Arco de la Reina stands the Monasterio de Carmen Alto. Inside this fully functioning convent, cloistered nuns stay busy producing some of Quito’s tastiest traditional sweets. Top picks include the limones desamargados (literally ‘de-soured lemons’), made by hollowing out tiny lemons and filling them with a sweetened-milk concoction. Purchase them through a revolving contraption, which keeps the nuns hidden, or at the shop next door, where you can also buy traditional baked goods, aromatic waters for nerves and insomnia, bee pollen, honey and bottles of full-strength mistela (anise-flavored liqueur).
reviewed
-
T
Iglesia de Las Nazarenas
Iglesia de las Nazarenas is one of Lima’s most storied churches. In the 17th century, the area was a shantytown inhabited by former slaves, and it was here that one of them painted an image of the Crucifixion on a wall that survived the devastating earthquake of 1655. In the 1700s, a church was built around this wall (which serves as the centerpiece of the main altar), and has been rebuilt many times since. But the wall endures, and on October 18 each year a representation of the mural, known as El Señor de los Milagros (Christ of Miracles), is carried around in a tens-of-thousands-strong procession that lasts for days.
reviewed
-
U
Iglesia San Francisco
Italian Eduardo Provasoli chose a marriage of neo-Gothic and Classical architecture in his design for the elaborate Iglesia San Francisco, finished in 1912 to replace an earlier church that burned down (which had replaced an even earlier church that had burned down). One of Chiloé’s Unesco gems, the church once assaulted the vision with its exterior paint job – salmon with violet trim – but it’s in bad need of a touch up these days. Inside, the varnished-wood interior is stunning. It is best to visit on a sunny day – if you are lucky enough – as the interior is more charming illuminated by the rows of stained-glass windows.
reviewed
