The traveller in the cities and towns of Spanish America finds himself, often without knowing or analysing the cause, in an atmosphere quaint, restful and pleasing. He seems transplanted to an old-world or semi-mediaeval environment, as of some more ancient or remote place of European lands where the vulgarizing hand of the commercial age is as yet unknown. Looking around and above him he finds the sensation is imparted by the buildings, the façades of the streets, the churches and the general disposition architecturally of the place. It is the atmosphere and influence of the old Spanish Colonial architecture.
Notwithstanding the very considerable extent and interest of this field, few writers on Spanish America appear to have made any broad study of the subject, or at least to have set down much in the way of description of what is so noteworthy and important a feature of life in these widely-scattered communities, but it is a matter worthy of some study.
This type of architecture is, naturally, more intensively represented in those parts of the Spanish American Continent which were the principal seats of viceregal rule, such as Mexico and Peru, but the style predominates throughout the whole of Central and South America, and in the West Indian Islands, such as Cuba and Santo Domingo, which were under Spanish sway. The example set, the style was followed to a considerable extent after the time of Independence, and with some modification, subservient to modern economic, domestic or commercial requirements, is employed in modern erections. Here, however, a new note has been introduced, an unpleasing note, and the dignified and quaint "classic" of the Colonial architecture has to some extent given place to a cheaper-appearing "Gothic," which, beside the older style, often appears frivolous or tawdry, although its exponents may derive some satisfaction from their claim to be "modern" and "progressive." The façades of the streets—and the circumstance is notable especially in the larger cities—has in some cases been vulgarized by the erection of huge business premises or blocks, in which the utilitarian has triumphed over the dignified and chaste.
There is less call for comment on this last-named condition in such centres as Buenos Ayres and others, which have sprung to being in comparatively recent times, and even Rio de Janeiro; but even here, as in modern Rio de Janeiro, the old chaste style has been widely reproduced and perpetuated, side by side with the "commercial" order and the somewhat riotous stucco architecture of the plutocratic residence.
The principal features of the Colonial style of street architecture are the square-headed windows with their moulded architraves, and, more elaborately, pediments, and the prominent cornices, friezes and sills. The balcony to the upper windows, and the rejas or iron grilles, to the lower—the latter originally and indeed still a necessary safeguard, from various causes—are the most prominent features, together with the wide saguan or principal doorway, high enough for a mounted horseman to enter, giving access to the patio or courtyard, around which, generally open to the sky, the interior doors and windows are disposed—a type, of course, inherited from the Moors through Spain. The houses are built close against the street. There is no garden or space in front, but the patio is generally planted, often beautifully so, with shrubs and flowers, often with the addition of a fountain. Around the upper wall of the patio a gallery runs, reached by an outside staircase, giving access to the various apartments of the first floor.
In the public buildings, and in the more elaborate private mansions, such as the main residential streets of the capitals display, the window-heads are frequently arched. Much effect is gained by the method of severity in the greater part of the façade, with elaborate carving disposed where needful. The material is generally of stone in the older buildings, and in the newer—but with an effect that does not deceive—the scheme is carried out in plaster or stucco, whose appearance is sometimes too artificial. The most notable feature of the façades of those buildings which form the sides of the plazas, or public squares, are the portales or arcades, of arches supported on columns, a covered footpath thus being formed, with the upper stories of the buildings thereover. This type of building is, of course, common to Latin countries in Europe.
When we come to the church architecture of the Spanish American towns, we enter a somewhat different field. Enormous work has been lavished upon them. Their façades are sometimes loaded with the most ornate carvings, exciting admiration for the beauty and dexterity of their individual parts, but giving occasion for the criticism of being overdone and overburdened.
The cathedrals and churches of the larger Mexican cities are things to marvel at, in many instances. So intricate, beautiful and elaborate is the ornamentation which has been lavished upon these and other ecclesiastical structures, even in remote towns whose very name is unknown to the ordinary European traveller, that words fail to describe them, and they must be seen to be appreciated. The work was performed mainly in the time of the viceroys.
The temples of Peru are less noteworthy, but nevertheless follow out in some degree the same lavish style, as evidenced in the sacred edifices of Lima and to a less extent those of Cuzco and Arequipa. If Mexico was a "city of palaces" (as Humboldt termed it), Lima has at least claims to be considered a city of beautiful ecclesiastical structures.
Other Spanish American capitals may also point with pride to the beauty of their old public and consecrated buildings, and, indeed, Spanish culture in this respect, the fervour and piety of the Romish Church in Iberian hands, has conferred a benefit upon the New World for which it might well be grateful. Throughout thousands of miles of savage territory Spain caused to arise these oases of religious and monastic culture, appreciation of which the lapse of time, rather than diminishing, should augment.