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there are four other plazas of about the same size as the
tect, Luis Diez de Navarro.3 His plan for the new capital,
drawing, so that the five are arranged like dots on the num-
I. There are many documents in the Archivo General del Gobierno (hereafter AGG) in Guatemala City and the Archivo de Indias in Seville (hereafter AI) dealing with the destruction of Antigua
in 1773 and the moving of the capital to the new site. The following
are of special interest: AI, Guatemala, 657, 658, 659, 66o, 661, and
the plan running through the Plaza Mayor (Fig. 2). A plan
2. See Perez Valenzuela, op. cit., pp. 77ff., who cites the cedula
dated 21 September 1775 at San Idelfonso, Spain, and which arrived
in Guatemala on 28January 1776 approving the project for the moving of the capital from Antigua. The proposal had been submitted by
the then captain general and president of the audiencia, Martin de Ma-
4. (Fig. i). AI, Guatemala, 220; see also Pedro Torres Lanzas,
Relacion descriptiva de los mapas, pianos, etc., de la audiencia y capitania
general de Guatemala, existentes en el Archivo General de Indias, Madrid,
1903, no. 220. Another copy of this plan exists in the archives of the
Servicios Geografico e Hist6rico del Ejercito, Estado Mayor Central, Madrid, and is reproduced in Cartografia de ultramar, carpeta IV,
I8I
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182
Fig. i. Luis Diez de Navarro, Plan for La Nueva Guatemala, dated I March I776. AI, Guatemala, 220 (photo: author).
the new capital and design the public buildings whose loca-
to the crown in 1787 (Fig. 3). It is very much like the origi-
nal one for the city drawn by Ibiaiez in 1778, implying that
within the space of nine years the city had already taken
shape as projected.6
6. (Fig. 3). Two copies of this plan exist, AI, Guatemala, 264 and
265. See also Torres Lanzas, op. cit., nos. 264, 265, the latter being the
duplicate. It is interesting to compare the plan of modern day Guatemala City, that is, the central portion, and see that the scheme of the
streets and the plazas, except for one on the east leg of the horizontal
axis, is still the same.
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183
remained for other architects to continue the work on the
Spain.9
side, the custom house and the private dwelling and shops
9. For accounts of the building history of the cathedral see the
following: Juarros, op. cit., i, pp. 66, 213 and II, pp. 25Iff.; Perez
Valenzuela, op. cit., pp. 84ff., 103; Brasseur de Bourbourg, ASGH
xxIv, I949, p. 168, writing in 1855, says the cathedral was just about
finished but was still lacking the towers. See also the following docu-
draftsman.10
ments: AI, Guatemala, 956, 951, and 952, leg. 18; AGG, A I.10.2
(1786) 1669-68, A I.10.2 (1778) 1670-68, A I.10.2 (I797) 1672-68,
A I.10.2 (1798) 1673-68, A 1.Io.2 (i8oi) 1675-68, A 1.10.2 (1802)
1677-68, A 1.10.2 (1802) 1678-68. For some references to other documents in the Archivo de Indias, see Torres Lanzas, op. cit., nos. 246,
247, 267, 268; for reproductions of the plans see Angulo, op. cit., pls.
I47-I50, 15I, 152. See also Miguel Larreinaga, Prontuario de todas las
reales cedulas etc., Guatemala, 1857, p. 123, for a cedula dated 21 September 1775, already cited in note 2 above, where among other matters, instructions for financing the construction of the cathedral are
included.
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Io. AGG, A I.Io (I777) I575-59. See also Gonzalez Mateos, loc.
cit.; Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., pp. 123ff.
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Fig. 2. Marcos Ibaniez, Plan for La Nueva Guatemala, dated 24 November 1778. AI, Guatemala, 234 (photo: author).
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184
Fig. 3. Plan of La Nueva Guatemala, dated 1787. AI, Guatemala, 264 (photo: author).
between the one shown on the plan of the plaza and the one
also gives the elevation of the north side showing the mar-
ket stalls (cajones) just in front of the city hall and also a
appears in detail, and also from the one actually built (Figs.
7, 9). It is most probable that the over-all plan of the plaza
II. (Figs. 5, 6). AI, Guatemala, 529. See Torres Lanzas, op. cit.,
nos. 261, 262; Angulo, op. cit., II, pp. 96ff. and Iv, pp. 43Iff., pls.
171, 172.
13. See note I above; also Markman, op. cit., p. 57, and Gonzalez
Mateos, op. cit., p. 54.
town planning. It was to be an open area delimited by porticoes and buildings to give it coherence and unity, with the
central or focal point in the fountain set exactly on the diag-
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Fig. 5. Anltonio Bcrnasconii, Plani for the Plaza Mayor, dated 14 December I785. Al, Guatemala, 529 (photo: after Aiigulo, Plaiwos, pl. 171).
14. See Markman, op. cit., p. 17, for the existence of this customl
since the seventeenth century in Antigua. It was an Hispanic tradition for the city government to provide facilities (cajoncs) for the
public market in the main square of towns, even in Madrid. Sec also
Angulo, op. cit., Iv, p. 431.
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187
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i88
Fig. 8. Palacio de los Capitanes Generales ca. 1876 (photo: after Muybridge, Pacific States, negative no. 4336).
the fact that some accounts of the money spent on the job
signed and what was built after his death. The disparity in
America.1 5
pared.
The lack of skilled workmen in Guatemala at the end of
chitect. The sculptures, alluded to deprecatingly by European observers, were possibly done by one Matias de Espana
I5. Henry Dunn, Guatimala, or the United Provinces of Central
America in 1827-1828, New York, 1828, pp. 67ff.; G. W. Montgom-
America, New York, I87I, ch. XII for a description of the architecture of Guatemala; Diaz, op. cit., p. 134 for a quotation from Morellet translated into Spanish describing the Plaza Mayor. Some contemporary drawings and photographs were published in which the
plaza at different times during the nineteenth century is shown as
18. For the problem of the lack of skilled labor in Guatemala, see
Markman, op. cit., pp. 44ff., 53; also his "La mano de obra indigena
bridge, The Pacific Coast of Central America and Mexico; and the Cultivation and Shipment of Coffee, 1876, being an unpublished album of
I9. Markman, op. cit., p. 57, for a short biographical note on Bar-
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189
Antiguan Baroque in style. But the contrary is true of the
superstructure, where neoclassic elements are introduced.21
A little kiosk or baldachin-like structure rises from the basin,
ing also shows the walls of the basin decorated with relief
sculptures set in panels. The base or podium of the kiosk it-
self also has some reliefs. Each corner of the podium is also
embellished with a statue in the round of the forequarters of
also conforming to the outline of the basin, and it is surrounded by low stone posts by way of a fence which Bernasconi probably intended to close with chains. The fountain suffered the loss of the royal equestrian during the
tumultuous days when the independence from Spain was
achieved in 1821. But in its new location even the horse is
is no longer in evidence.22 The structure as it exists today
(Fig. 9), except for the low stepped platform, is exactly the
21. For the fountains of Antigua see Markman, op. cit., pp. I46ff.,
and especially Fuente de los Dominicos, pp. I47ff., figs. 92-94, and
the Fountain near La Merced, pp. I48ff., figs. 95-98. The same type
Fig. 9. The fountain of the Plaza Mayor in 1965 reconstructed in
the Plazuela de Espafia (photo: author).
craftsman, probably did actual physical work on the fountain as well as supervise the project in general until its com-
pletion in 1789.20
Bernasconi's plan of the basin shows a simple square with
gently curving, exedra-like projections or hemicycles from
employed for window openings and even for the cross section of
arcade piers in cloisters, as for example in the Escuela de Cristo,
ibid., p. 185, fig. II.
22. John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America,
Cliiapas, and Yucatan, New York, 1841, I, pp. 92ff.; Boddam-Whetham, op. cit., p. 24; Diaz, op. cit., p. I34. The fountain had been dismantled at some unspecified date, probably late in the nineteenth
century, and dumped on the outskirts of the city. In the I930s it was
each side (Fig. 6). The same type of plan or outline is found
runcho; sec also, Angulo, op. cit., IV, p. 433; also Chinchilla Aguilar
op. cit., p. 130, who says Espafia was the sculptor, though he does
not state his sources for this information. Heinrich Berlin, Historia de
Fig. Io. Marcos Ibafiez, Plan of the cathedral of La Nueva Guatemala, dated I6 February 1782. Detail, the facade. AI, Guatemala,
95I (photo: after Angulo, Pianos, pl. I5o).
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I90
The low fence of stone posts was never installed, for they
was the fate of the building that was to introduce the neo-
the case of one horse where the ball rests on the ledge of the
from Spain.
ing the plaza is carried out as a blind arcade, being a variation of the true arcades erected on the other three sides of
the plaza. The entrance is accented by a door set in a bay
flat, unadorned pilasters now set off the bays of the arcade
vocabulary. But his plan was changed after his death, and
(Fig. I2).
iez, who had made the original plan, left Guatemala when
23. See note 9 above for historical and documentary data on the
253, 254; see also Angulo, op. cit., iv, pp. 4IIff., and pls. I50, 153 for
reproductions of the same.
25. For the University of San Carlos and the Seminario Tridentino see Markman, op. cit., pp. 198-203, figs. 188-196, and pp. 197-
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I9I
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Fig. ii. Antonio Bernasconi, Plan of the Palacio Arzobispal, dated 13 October I784. AI, Guatemala, 57I (photo:
after Angulo, Pianos, pl. 153).
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I92
or base of the towers and that of the central bay. Thus the
facade was completed up to the height of the main entablature which integrated the five units (two tower bays, two
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The two low flanking buildings to either side of the cathedral had been proportioned in concert with Ibanez' original
scheme, and were meant to conform in height to the low,
broad, extended facade in the center, thus forming a unified
than four and one half varas high. Also in article No. 27 it
did not look dwarfed and out of proportion as they do today. The changes in the plan of the cathedral set up a chain
earthquake-resistant.27
fiez had perforce to deviate from the norms of good design. This explains why he planned isolated, low towers to
bacos, and the post office. The scheme was unified by the
28. The towers were completed between 1863 and 1868 according
which they now abutted and with which they were lined
to Diaz, op. cit., p. 178. Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., pp. I92ff., says the
towers were built in I865, the frontispiece between the tower belfries in 1867, and the lonja (the platform or atrium in front of the
dral.
26. See note 2 above.
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I93
I
Fig. I3. The cathedral in 1965. The Palacio Arzobispal is to the left. The belfries of the towers and the
freestanding frontispiece were rebuilt in the I92os. Compare with Fig. 7 (photo: author).
which gave the plaza its rather dreary and desolate unaes-
thetic aspect.
But one must not ascribe this unattractiveness to a lack of
of money, which they did not have in the first place, in new
plane of the portico is offset for nine bays so that this section
trade, which also runs along the entire length of the portico,
is slightly higher over these nine bays, while the middle one,
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194
on the opposite side of the plaza. Near the north end of the
doned and the new city existed more on paper than in fact,
novation at all, for similar square piers had been used for the
Ramirez had done a plan for a custom house.40 But this plan
(Fig. 14), along with Diez de Navarro's for the city itself,
The evidence for the other two sides of the plaza from
west side (Fig. 7), but still there is enough to make it possi-
of the Capitania rose one story above the arcade. This build-
the city council, the Casas Consistoriales, was the very last
likely the clock tower was built even after the independence
from Spain.37
been in the planning stage as far back as 1783, the year Iba-
located the custom house. Some idea of the design envisioned by Ibaniez for this side may be gained from the plan
he did in 1777 for the Administraci6n de Tabacos which he
fiez left Guatemala, at which time Ramirez was of the opinion that the colonnade of this building follow the same pattern as that decided for the custom house.41 The Casas Con-
from Spain.
CONCLUSIONS
1586-59 and A I.IO.I (I785) 6499-309. See note 5 above for refer-
38. For a plan of the proposed Casa Aycinena dated 1781, see
Angulo, op. cit., Iv, 429ff., pl. I69. See alsoJuarros, op. cit., I, pp. 65ff.;
and Diaz, op. cit., p. 123, who states the Portal del Comercio was
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I95
Fig. I4. Bernardo Ramirez, Plan for the custom house of La Nueva Guatemala, dated I774. AGG, A 3.5 (1774) I375-72, folio 5 (photo: author) .
have low porticoes to define the space. But his ideas were
to abandon what little had been left intact and move to the
new capital. This poverty, coupled with the fear that all
transitory.
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I96
hand materials taken from the ruined city of Antigua. It
But of all the liabilities enumerated above, that is, the lack
realization of the town plan and its Plaza Mayor. The past
quake of I917. It was only after the introduction of reinforced concrete construction in the twentieth century that
any desire to recreate the impoverished original plan42. For the use of second-hand materials from Antigua in the construction of the public buildings of La Nueva Guatemala, see Markman, op. cit., pp. I8, 42; Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., p. II8; and note
I above.
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