The Plaza Mayor of Guatemala City

Author(s): Sidney D. Markman

Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Oct., 1966), pp.
181-196
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural
Historians
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The Plaza Mayor of Guatemala City

SIDNEY D. MARKMAN Duke University

ANTIGUA Guatemala, the former capital of the Reino de

I March 1776 and on it there appears the notation that the

Guatemala, was destroyed by a series of earthquakes in

I773. Over the opposition of both the ecclesiastical and

city was already in construction.4

municipal authorities, the capital was forcibly moved to a

north-south and east-west (Fig. I). In addition to the Plaza

new site about forty kilometers away, the modern city of

Mayor, which Diez locates in the very center of the scheme,

Guatemala.1 Very soon after the site selected was approved

there are four other plazas of about the same size as the

The plan shows a simple quadrangle with streets running

by the authorities in Spain, in December 1775,2 the city was

main plaza, one in the center of each quadrant or quarter

surveyed and laid out by the military engineer and archi-

formed by the horizontal and longitudinal axes of the

tect, Luis Diez de Navarro.3 His plan for the new capital,

now named La Nueva Guatemala de la Asuncion, is dated

drawing, so that the five are arranged like dots on the num-

ber five sides of gaming dice. The layout is divided into

twelve streets running north-south and twelve east-west,
that is, thirteen by thirteen square blocks including those to

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

662; AGG, A 1.3.25 (1773) I3252-I96I; AGG, A I.I0 (I773)

18773-2444; see also Boletin del Archivo General del Gobierno vm,

Guatemala, 1943, pp. I52ff. For some contemporary accounts in

be occupied by the plazas, or a total of 169 for the city as a

whole.

When Francisco Sabatini, the court architect to whom

Diez had submitted his proposal for the new town layout,
saw the project he insisted that some changes be made, for
he did not think it conformed to the then modern principles

of town planning. Diez de Navarro, an old man at the time

and who had been in Guatemala since I74I, was dismissed

published form see Domingo Juarros, Compendio de la historia de la

ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala, I936-I937, II, pp. I6Iff., I65ff., and
I79ff.; Juan Gonzalez Bustillo, Razon particular de los templos, etc.,
La Hermita (Guatemala City), I774, passim, as well as in documentary form in AGG, A 1.18.6 (I774) 38306-4502, and a modern copy
of the same, A I.I8.I6 (I904) 1400I-2021; Isagoge historica apologetica

authorities in Spain in I778.5 Ibafiez changed the location of

de las Indias occidentales y especial de la provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa

the four secondary plazas, putting them on the cross axes of

y Guatemala de la orden de Predicadores, Guatemala, 1935, pp. 409ff.;

Pedro Perez Valenzuela, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asuncion, Guate-

and in his place Marcos Ibanez was put in charge of laying

out the city; the latter submitted a new plan to the royal

the plan running through the Plaza Mayor (Fig. 2). A plan

mala, 1934, gives an exhaustive account based on contemporary

literary and historical sources as well as on documentary materials.
Information on the destruction of Antigua and the moving of the
capital to the new site is also given by many modern authors, especially Victor Manuel Diaz, Las bellas artes en Guatemala, Guatemala,
1934; J. Antonio Villacorta C., Historia de la Capitania General de

Guatemala, Guatemala, I942; Ernesto Chinchilla Aguilar, Historia

del arte en Guatemala, 1963.

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-

yorga, on 30 June I774.

3. AGG, A I.I0.3 (I775) 4536-74.

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,

Ame'rica Central, Madrid, 1957, map no. 8. For biographical data on

Luis Diez de Navarro and his work in Guatemala, see Sidney D.

Markman, Colonial Architecture of Antigua Guatemala, Philadelphia,
I966, pp. 58ff.

5. Maria Victoria Gonzilez Mateos, "Marcos Ibaniez, arquitecto

espafiol en Guatemala," Anales de la Sociedad de Geograffa e Historia

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).

showing the distribution of the water supply was submitted

the new capital and design the public buildings whose loca-

to the crown in 1787 (Fig. 3). It is very much like the origi-

tions he had already decided on and which appear on his

nal one for the city drawn by Ibiaiez in 1778, implying that

within the space of nine years the city had already taken

city plan. One of the first he designed, in November 1777,

was the one to house the Real Administraci6n de Tabacos

shape as projected.6

which was to be adjacent to the post office, and the custom

Once Ibafiez had altered Diez de Navarro's original

scheme, his next job was to supervise the construction of

house (Figs. 2, 4). This public building was to be located on

the south side of the plaza.7 In 1782 he also did a plan of the

cathedral which he placed on the east side of the Plaza

(hereafter ASGH) xxIv, 1949, pp. 49-75, especially pp. 53ff. and
65ff., reprinted from Anuario de Estudios Americanos III, 1946. For
Ibaniez' plan (Fig. 2), AI, Guatemala, 234; see also Torres Lanzas, op.
cit., no. 234.

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.

Mayor. But he left Guatemala the next year, in I783, after

having directed the actual construction but a short time.8 It

7. (Fig. 4). AGG, A 3.13 (1777) 29687-1872, folio i8.

8. Gonzalez Mateos, loc. cit.; Torres Lanzas, op. cit., nos. 246, 247.
For reproductions of these plans see Diego Angulo iiiguez, Pianos de
monumentos arquitect6nicos de America y Filipinas existentes en el Archivo

de Indias, Sevilla, Seville, I933-I940, pls. I47, I48.

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183
remained for other architects to continue the work on the

The other three sides of the plaza were occupied in the

cathedral which, though inaugurated and put into use on

course of time by the following buildings: directly opposite

6 January 1813, was not completed until much later in the

nineteenth century and long after the independence from

the cathedral on the west side of the plaza, the Capitania

with offices for the Audiencia, Casa de Moneda, and other

Spain.9

royal governmental dependencies as well; on the north side,

the Casas Consistoriales, including the city jail; on the south

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

large fountain designed by Antonio Bernasconi who had

arrived in Guatemala in 1776 with Ibafiez, as the latter's

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)

fountain in its center, were sent on 14 December 1785 to the

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.

_~4m .u

.A,.

of Fermin Aycinena; and in the very center of the plaza, a

Two plans, one of the Plaza Mayor and another of the

royal authorities in Spain along with a brief, expediente (Figs.

5, 6). These drawings are from the hand of Bernasconi

Io. AGG, A I.Io (I777) I575-59. See also Gonzalez Mateos, loc.
cit.; Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., pp. 123ff.

lr r r Cag z- 'l r - m- U

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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).

though his signature does not appear on them.'1 The em-

between the one shown on the plan of the plaza and the one

placement of the buildings is shown exactly as Ibaniez had

which appears on the plan of the fountain itself, leads to the

shown it on the city plan (Fig. 2) and as Juarros describes it

conclusion that Bernasconi redesigned the latter after Iba-

at the end of the eighteenth century.12 The plan of the plaza

fiez had left in I783. Bernasconi, as Ibaniez' draftsman,

also gives the elevation of the north side showing the mar-

probably drew both plans, the first as a detail in the general

ket stalls (cajones) just in front of the city hall and also a

scheme of the city designed by his superior, and the second

fountain of circular plan. The latter is quite different from

on his own authority after he had been put in charge of the

the one depicted on the second plan, where the fountain

building works in the new capital. In fact he labelled the

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

drawings numbers I and 2 respectively. He uses the same

device, wreaths of flowers with festoons, at the bottom of

was done before that of the fountain rendered by Bernas-

each plan to indicate the scale, "varas castellanas." It appears

coni in detail, and the one which was subsequently built.13

that the actual layout of the plaza had been decided on by

The difference in design between the two fountains, that is,

Ibafiez, and it remained for Bernasconi to work out the de-

tails which he had free rein to change after he was named

the architect in charge of the construction of the new capital.

II. (Figs. 5, 6). AI, Guatemala, 529. See Torres Lanzas, op. cit.,

Ibanfez had provided for the main plaza of La Nueva

nos. 261, 262; Angulo, op. cit., II, pp. 96ff. and Iv, pp. 43Iff., pls.

Guatemala to be almost twice the size of that in Antigua,

171, 172.

conforming to the new ideas current in Spain concerning

12. Juarros, op. cit., I, p. 65 and ii, p. 6; also Chinchilla Aguilar,

op. cit., pp. i22ff.

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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* (Jotln :oloqd) 8I oiloj 'zL-8i-896

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i86
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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).

onals of the rectangular plan. Despite all this, however, the

the center of the square. This market was not an innovation,

effect of a mathematically balanced organization of the

for holding the public market in the main square of towns

space was to be vitiated by the public market customarily

was an old and persevering custom in Guatemala, and was

held there. Bernasconi had made provision for market stalls

in fact, one which had originated in Spain.14

(cajoncs) which he arranged following the outline of the

plaza, placing them so that they also formed the boundaries

But the market stalls were never to be arranged so neatly

and logically as they appear on Bernasconi's plan of the

of the streets which ran across the perimeter of the plaza

(Fig. 5). He placed twenty stalls on the longer north and
south sides, and fourteen on the shorter east and west sides.
Furthermore, he also arranged them so that openings were
left in the center of each row as well as at the corners, in
order to facilitate the flow of pedestrian traffic in and out of

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
I - I ' I I 1 a , -

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_',,'WN . (l..r I). (A,I rl,i l I ,,/

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.4I i

Fig. 6. Antonio Bernasconi, Plan for the fountain of the

Plaza Mayor, dated 14 December I785. AI, Guatemala,

529 (photo: after Angulo, Pianos, pl. I72).

Fig. 7. The fountain of the

Plaza Mayor ca. 1876 with

the cathedral in the left back-

,! !?:!* ^ ground, partial views of the

Palacio Arzobispal and the

Colegio de Infantes to left

and right respectively, and

the colonnade on the south

side of the plaza to the right

(photo: after Muybridge, Pacific States, negative no. 434I).

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i88

Fig. 8. Palacio de los Capitanes Generales ca. 1876 (photo: after Muybridge, Pacific States, negative no. 4336).

Plaza Mayor. In time the area wasjammed with ajumble of

had begun actual construction before his death, judging by

nondescript huts in complete disarray, as noted by a num-

the fact that some accounts of the money spent on the job

ber of foreign nineteenth-century observers. Some visual

evidence also exists to confirm the verbal opinions of these

that year were rendered to the authorities.17 More than just

minor material differences exist between what he had de-

visitors concerning the unaesthetic appearance of the prin-

signed and what was built after his death. The disparity in

cipal plaza of the most important city in all of Central

quality between his conception on paper and the completed

fountain in stone becomes obvious when the two are com-

America.1 5

Until the cathedral was finally completed in I865 or so,

the most impressive structure in the Plaza Mayor was the

pared.
The lack of skilled workmen in Guatemala at the end of

fountain designed by Antonio Bernasconi (Figs. 6, 7, 9).

the eighteenth century is notorious18 and is aptly illustrated

The architect did not live to see it completed, for he died

by this fountain. Bernasconi's plan was turned over to an

suddenly on 28 October 1785, just about two months be-

ordinary stonecutter, one Manuel Jesus Barruncho, who

fore the plans were submitted to the court in Spain.16 He

finished the job without any supervision from a trained ar-

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-

of whom little is known, but whose ability as a sculptor is

ery, Narrative of a Journey to Guatemala in Central America in 1838,

decorated the fountain.19 Barruncho, who was primarily a

New York, 1839, pp. I5iff.;J. W. Boddam-Whetham, Across Cen-

well documented by the extant figures with which he

tral America, London, 1877, p. 24; Arthur Morellet, Travels in Central

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

follows: ASGH vi, I929-I930, p. 29; ASGH xIII, I936-I937, p.

266; ASGH xxIv, I949, p. 168; Bureau of the American Republics,
Guatemala, Bulletin, No. 32, Washington, D. C., January, 1892, facing p. 67.
I6. See note II above; also Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., p. 126.
Figs. 7 and 8 are copies of photographs taken by Eadweard Muy-

the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.; another in the library

of Stanford University; and a third in the possession of Professor
Walter Miles, of Yale University, who kindly allowed me to make
copies of his collection. Fig. 7 is listed as being made from negative
no. 4341, and Fig. 8 from negative no. 4336.

I7. AGG, A I.IO.I (I785) 649I-309.

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

(no espafiola) en el desarrollo de la arquitectura colonial de Guate-

bridge, The Pacific Coast of Central America and Mexico; and the Cultivation and Shipment of Coffee, 1876, being an unpublished album of

mala," in Boletin del Centro de Investigaciones Hist6ricas y Esteticas,

144 photographs of which three copies are known to exist: one in

I9. Markman, op. cit., p. 57, for a short biographical note on Bar-

Caracas, no. 3, 1965, pp. 88-97.

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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,

conforming in plan to that of the basin itself. Inside it an

equestrian figure is set on a low pedestal. Bernasconi's draw-

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

a rearing horse from whose nostrils the water spouts. The

whole of the fountain is set on a low, three-step platform,

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

same as in the photograph taken by Muybridge in 1876

(Fig. 7). It thus serves as a basis of comparison with Bernas-

coni's plan in order to determine what changes were made

by Barruncho.

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

of outline, a square with a curvilinear projection on each side, is also

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

restored and erected anew in the Plazuela de Espalia where it can

be seen today. See ASGH xiv, 1937-1938, p. 32.

each side (Fig. 6). The same type of plan or outline is found

in many fountains of Antigua, both public and private. In

this respect, the ground plan of the fountain is still quite

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

la imagineria en Guatemala, Guatemala, 1952, pp. IIIff., gives a short

biographical account of Matias de Espafia, but nothing which might
indicate that he worked on the fountain. Espafia worked in Antigua,
appearing in the records for the first time in I743. He died in I800.
20. For some accounts of the expenditures on the fountain, see

AGG, A I.I0.2 (I786) I4986-2I08, A 1.10.2 (1786) I4987-2I08, and

A I.I0 (1786) 1614-61. The date of completion is given in the inscription on the side facing north (Fig. 9), where the fountain is now

located, that is, I8 September 1789.

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

do not appear in Muybridge's photograph. The panels on

works. Fortunately they did not remain in charge for very

long when they were replaced, not by a single architect

the basin walls were never decorated with the bas-reliefs as

who might have seen the job through to completion, but

intended by Berasconi. Nor is the podium of the kiosk so

by a series of Spaniards, the most important one of whom

decorated. The quality of the workmanship of the four

was Josef Sierra, more a military engineer than a civil archi-

horses springing from the corners of the kiosk leaves much

tect. Each worked for short periods of time and changed or

to be desired. Bernasconi shows them rearing up with their

added something to the original plan of Ibafiez. Such then

forelegs unencumbered and pawing the air (Fig. 6), where-

was the fate of the building that was to introduce the neo-

as here they each rest their forelegs on a large stone ball

classic style to Guatemala and the rest of Central America,

which is seemingly suspended in air (Figs. 7, 9), except in

a style which came to be the symbol of the independence

the case of one horse where the ball rests on the ledge of the

from Spain.

very corer of the podium. The rendition of the anatomy

of the horses can hardly be considered what one would expect from an experienced sculptor. It is rather from the
hand of a stonecutter who was accustomed to execute mold-

The cathedral formed the major eastern element for the

spatial delineation of the Plaza Mayor. But it did not stand
isolated there, for almost from the very first it was flanked
by the Palacio Arzobispal on the north and the Colegio de

ings and other architectural details, but who had little,

Seises, or Infantes, on the south (Figs. 11, I2). The former

if any, experience carving figures and whose style, if style it

be at all, is best characterized as "naive" or "primitive" in

was designed by Bernasconi.24 The side of the building fac-

the modern sense.

The curvilinear surfaces of the hemicycle-like projections

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

between the rearing horses are incised with random undu-

with rusticated pilasters surmounted with a triangular pedi-

lating grooves and were obviously intended by the sculptor

ment, a treatment not unlike that of the entrances of the

to represent the waves of the sea. One side only is spared

this surgery, the one with the inscription facing north as the

Capitania on the opposite side of the plaza. The balustrade,

or "Roman attic," which crowns the wall adds a little more

fountain is oriented today (Fig. 9). Barruncho allowed him-

height to the building. The device is well known in the

self, or his sculptor, a little whimsical liberty by way of

eighteenth-century Antiguan style, for instance in the Uni-

further decoration by placing what may be regarded as the

versity of San Carlos and the Seminario Tridentino, two

head of a snarling serpent of some kind, with teeth and

examples of the culmination of the style which developed

tongue visible, on the center of each opening of the kiosk

in Antigua after the earthquake of I717.25 In this sense,

above the waves on each projecting curvilinear section.

then, Bernasconi did not make a complete break with the

These reptiles prove to be rather superfluous companions to

local Baroque idiom, the treatment of the door being the

the Pegasi, and one may speculate at will as to what they

only element reminiscent of the new style. He had designed

were supposed to symbolize. What the stone balls under the

the blind arcade with engaged half-columns (Fig. II), also

forelegs of the horses represent will ever remain a mystery

locked in the mind of Barruncho.

in keeping with the eighteenth-century Antiguan Baroque

The construction history of the cathedral was even less

flat, unadorned pilasters now set off the bays of the arcade

vocabulary. But his plan was changed after his death, and

felicitous than that of the fountain. Not only did it suffer

(Fig. I2).

the vicissitudes of changes in plan, but also from the apathy

of indifferent architects whose aims were thwarted for lack

rather low and overextended in width. It is flanked by

The design of the cathedral faqade by Ibaniez (Fig. Io) is

of funds or because of meddling by local authorities.23 Iba-

rather squat towers slightly lower in height than the very

iez, who had made the original plan, left Guatemala when

pinnacle of the pediment over the central bay. Furthermore,

the building had barely reached foundation level. His task

they are separated from the side bays by a narrow uninte-

was then taken over by Bernasconi, who died shortly after-

grated interval of space. This rather low and disjointed or-

ward. In the interim, some local craftsmen, completely un-

conversant with the new style in which the cathedral had

been designed, took over the supervision of the building
24. (Fig. II). AI, Guatemala, 571. See Torres Lanzas, op. cit., nos.

23. See note 9 above for historical and documentary data on the

construction of the cathedral.

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-

198, figs. I83-I87.

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I9I

)HIYVII
jEI_1.
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. D.' ":', T ,j/
',.3- -. ' V,,. /,, F, /f,f,, /,, , ,, ?/,,/ , ,,,;,,.,, ,,, .', /r,,., 9.,,,.
FINr7:t.1"
-_t i
I

: 'T jw -t " - ..-I

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v
r

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It?

tc?

.1

3(r,

t 'E4 . c
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.?

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,,,

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't--...s.; I'r CICc;L

tr ?. I, c?j

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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

The side bays (with doors opening on the side aisles),

which Ibaniez planned to be lower than the central bay,
were also raised to the same height as that of the lower story

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

side-aisle bays, and the central bay) into a more unified

composition by 8I13. The attic and remate (finial) over the
central bay as well as the belfries of the towers themselves
were finally built in the third quarter of the nineteenth cen-

tury, thus completing the changes in Iblanez' original plan

cL-

I??I?
n,.

r.

-- -r:?- -?---e?c7;

This change in design of the faqade had a disastrous effect

1?

""

Z:

devised more than eighty years earlier.28

?"i:L-?-

Fig. 12. Palacio Arzobispal in 1965 (photo: author).

on the composition of the whole of the east side of the plaza.

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

ganization of the elements of the composition resulted from

ensemble to close the space of the Plaza Mayor on the east

Ibafiez' desire to conform to the wishes of the royal authori-

side (Figs. I , 12). As long as the cathedral remained un-

ties who were fearful of raising any building to any great

finished and without its belfry towers, the two buildings

height despite the requirements or norms of good architec-

tural design. These apprehensions were in a sense made

legalized architectural practice in the cedula of 1775 where
article No. I I orders that private houses were to be no more

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

reaction requiring changes in the two buildings to either

side, but which were never thought of, let alone carried
out.29

is explicitly stipulated that the new cathedral not be of an

The buildings which were finally constructed on the

excessive height, so as to avoid the dangers of earthquakes,

other three sides of the plaza before the independence from

and that the height of its tower be kept to a minimum for

Spain have all disappeared. In accord with the requirement

greater security.26 The fear of new destruction was so great

that the new city be planned to conform in layout to that of

that much time was taken up by a discussion, peripheral to

the ruined capital of Antigua,30 Ibfaez had placed the prin-

that of the roofing of the cathedral, concerning the necessity

cipal governmental buildings on the other three sides of the

of devising a new method of construction that would be

Plaza Mayor allowing himself only some small liberties as

earthquake-resistant.27

to which side in particular each was to occupy (Figs. 2, 5).

In such an emotional environment caused by the still

The side opposite the cathedral, the location of a park today,

fresh memories of the destruction of Antigua in 1773, Iba-

was reserved for the Capitana (Fig. 8) with its dependencies

fiez had perforce to deviate from the norms of good design. This explains why he planned isolated, low towers to

such as the Casa de Moneda and the Audiencia.31 He placed

the Casas Consistoriales on the north side. The south side he

either side of the facade. His scheme was changed by his

reserved for the custom house, the Administraci6n de Ta-

successors, so that the over-all composition of the faqade

bacos, and the post office. The scheme was unified by the

and the towers now appears better organized (Figs. 7, 13).

The architects who succeeded him raised the lower story of
the towers up to the height of the main portion of the facade

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

up in plan. The whole faCade was further unified by an en-

towers were built in I865, the frontispiece between the tower belfries in 1867, and the lonja (the platform or atrium in front of the

tablature common not only to the frontispiece, but also to

the lower stories of the towers below the belfries.

facade) in 1881. The towers were destroyed in the earthquake of

1917 and rebuilt during the next decade. Compare Figs. 7, 13.
29. See note 24 above for references to the plan of the Palacio
Arzobispal, and note 9 above for references to the plan of the cathe-

dral.
26. See note 2 above.

27. Perez Valenzuela, op. cit., pp. 80, 84, I03.

30. Perez Valenzuela, op. cit., pp. 78, 8o.

3I. AGG, A 1.80 (date?) 55040-6083.

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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).

low porticoes which fronted the buildings on the three sides

a short section of three bays near the southern end of the

and conformed to the low cathedral and flanking buildings

building with a clock tower above which is treated with a

on the east side. It was precisely these low buildings hidden

simple decorative scheme consisting of shallow pilasters,

behind the uniform and monotonously long colonnades

severely plain moldings, and a segmental pediment in the

which gave the plaza its rather dreary and desolate unaes-

neoclassic manner. This three-bay section marked the en-

thetic aspect.
But one must not ascribe this unattractiveness to a lack of

trance to the part of the building reserved for the Palacio

judgment on the part of those responsible for the design of

Real. The clock tower was built by Pedro Garci-Aguirre in

1795, after the portico was already standing.33 The piers of

the buildings, but rather more to the fear of earthquakes.

the central intercolumniation of this section are differentiat-

The authorities were less than willing to invest great sums

ed from the rest by rustication, a device which might be

of money, which they did not have in the first place, in new

conceded to be neoclassic innovation. Further up the colon-

buildings, knowing full well that the best of structures

would be short lived and that those that were more than

nade another slight departure from the monotonous pattern

one story high would be the sooner destroyed. In fact, as

building which housed the Audiencia. Here a somewhat

of void and solid marks the entrance to the part of the

already mentioned above, it was actually illegal to construct

more monumental treatment is in evidence. The exterior

buildings of more than one story, as was specifically ordered

plane of the portico is offset for nine bays so that this section

in the cedula of I775.32 One can understand why the gov-

projects slightly from the rest. The piers of the extremes of

this section as well as those of the central intercolumniation

ernment buildings were but one story high.

The only building of which a complete view exists is the

are also rusticated. Above, the low Roman attic or balus-

Capitania (Fig. 8). It shows a long, monotonous colonnade

trade, which also runs along the entire length of the portico,

revealing a repetitious rhythm of void and solid for I60

is slightly higher over these nine bays, while the middle one,

varas or so. But there are three minor variations or breaks in

or fifth, on center with the door which gave access to the

the pattern of square piers and arched openings. The first is

Audiencia, is topped by a small triangular pediment not

32. Perez Valenzuela, loc. cit.

33. Chinchilla Aguilar, op. cit., p. 130.

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194

unlike that still to be seen today on the Palacio Arzobispal

The western half of that side was occupied by the custom

on the opposite side of the plaza. Near the north end of the

house which was probably begun while Ibanez was still in

building was located the entrance to the Casa de Moneda.

Guatemala. After his departure, Bernasconi took over the

It was given the same sort of treatment as that which gave

supervision of the construction of this building. After the

access to the Palacio Real except that it lacked the clock

tower. This section of the Capitania was still unfinished

latter's death in 1785, Bernardo Ramirez was put in charge.

Ramirez had worked for many years with Diez de Navarro

when Bernasconi died, and so one must conclude that it was

in Antigua and had been given thejob of building the water

finished by others who followed him,34 possibly by Garci-

supply system for the new capital.39 As far back as 1774, at

Aguirre in I795. The type of piers employed in this portico,

a time when Antigua had not yet been completely aban-

except for those which were rusticated, was actually no in-

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

cloister arcade of the convent of Santa Clara in Antigua,

dated I734.35

was superseded when Ibaniez arrived. The custom house,

(Fig. 14), along with Diez de Navarro's for the city itself,

The evidence for the other two sides of the plaza from

when it was finally built after 1783, at first under Berna-

photographs and drawings is not as complete as that for the

sconi's and later under Ramirez' direction, utilized the

west side (Fig. 7), but still there is enough to make it possi-

scheme for the portico which Ibaniez had designed in his

ble to conclude that, though simpler in detail, the same style

plan for the Administraci6n de Tabacos (Fig. 4), and which

was followed in the construction of the porticoes as in that

Ramirez continued along the whole side of the plaza front-

of the Capitania.36 On the long and monotonous facade of

the Casas Consistoriales, a clock tower somewhat like that

ing the Aycinena house as well (Fig. 7).

of the Capitania rose one story above the arcade. This build-

the city council, the Casas Consistoriales, was the very last

ing was still at foundation level in 800o, so that it is quite

to be completed and, as mentioned above, was hardly above

The building on the north side of the plaza which housed

likely the clock tower was built even after the independence

foundations at the turn of the nineteenth century. It had

from Spain.37

been in the planning stage as far back as 1783, the year Iba-

On the south side, opposite the Casas Consistoriales, was

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-

sistoriales were to close the square, with the same monoto-

set contiguous to the post office, which in turn was followed

nous low colonnade, about the time of the independence

by the custom house (Fig. 4). He intended to repeat the

scheme of the Capitania with but one slight difference,

from Spain.

namely, segmental pediments to mark the entrances rather

than the triangular ones marking the entrances to the Audi-

encia and the Casa de Moneda. This building was never

built as he had planned, at least not in the location he had
put it, for the house of Fermin Aycinena was to occupy the
greater part of that side of the plaza.38

CONCLUSIONS

Ibafiez was probably thinking of making an improvement

in circulation over that of the closed plazas of Castilla, as for

example those in Salamanca and Madrid, when he set out to

design the Plaza Mayor of Guatemala City. He visualized a

large open area with the added advantage of the main

streets of the town forming its perimeter. Knowing that

34. Angulo, op. cit., IV, p. 432, n. 2.

35. Markman, op. cit., pp. I72ff., figs. I40-I44. For the eighteenthcentury arcaded facades of the Ayuntamiento and the Capitania in
Antigua see also, ibid., pp. 74ff., I80-I83, figs. 155-I60 and pp. 203206, figs. 197-206. These were quite graceful and well proportioned,
being two stories high and considerably shorter in length. In fact the
plaza of Antigua was approximately Ioo varas (the vara is about 33

inches) on each side, whereas the plaza of La Nueva Guatemala is

about I60 by I60 varas. The one story arcades seemed endlessly long
and monotonous. See Fig. 8.
36. See Perez Valenzuela, op. cit., p. 226; also AGG, A I.10 (I777)

1586-59 and A I.IO.I (I785) 6499-309. See note 5 above for refer-

ences to some nineteenth-century visual material.

37. Diaz, op. cit., p. 122, says it was built after I821.

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

built by the Aycinena family. Most of the property on that side of

the plaza did in fact belong to the Aycinenas until well into the twentieth century. Some of it still does.
39. Angulo, op. cit., rv, p. 432, n. 2; see also Markman, op. cit., pp.
62ff., for biographical data on Ramirez.

40. (Fig. 14). AGG, A 3.5 (I774) I375-72, folio 5.

4I. Perez Valenzuela, op. cit., p. 226; see also AGG, A I.10.2
(1783) i66o-68.

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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) .

structures had to be kept low, he designed a squat, widely

Another factor which contributed to the nondescript ap-

spread out cathedral facade. In keeping with the low pro-

pearance of the plaza was that of the poverty of the country

portions established on the east side, the other sides were to

which was aggravated by the constant destruction of earth-

have low porticoes to define the space. But his ideas were

used piecemeal, so that the changes which were subse-

quakes. As a result of this, not only the government's

sources of income were wiped out, but, what was even

quently made threw his scheme out of balance, changing its

worse, the commerce, industry, and capital in the form of

basic character. That the whole aspect of the Plaza Mayor,

real property of private citizens were destroyed time and

when finally completed, seemed impoverished aesthetically

time again so that only in rare instances could wealth be ac-

is not surprising when one considers the conditions under

cumulated on a permanent basis. The new city was built by

which it came into being. The responsibility for the con-

and for an impoverished citizenry who had lost most of

struction and redesigning of the buildings passed from ar-

their real property in Antigua in 1773, and then were forced

chitect to architect, also often falling into an artistic inter-

to abandon what little had been left intact and move to the

regnum when unlettered maestros de obras and only some-

new capital. This poverty, coupled with the fear that all

what more knowledgeable aparejadores were put in charge

new building works would soon come to the ground,

of even so important a monument as the metropolitan

cathedral of all Central America. Except for the general

dampened men's spirits who saw little purpose in embel-

scheme as visualized by Ibianez, and as carried on briefly by

transitory.

his successor Bernasconi, not a single building was built as

originally planned.

lishments which were, even at best, doomed to be only

Still another factor which had a deleterious effect on the

execution of the designs of Ibafiez was the use of second-

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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

was not necessarily malice alone on the part of the then

of trained architects, the constant change of plan and super-

president of the Audiencia, Martin de Mayorga, who or-

vision, the lack of money, and the use of second-hand ma-

dered the public buildings in Antigua dismantled so that the

terials, perhaps the most important was the ever present

materials might be used in the new city. These old materials

threat of further destruction by earthquake. This led to a

were hardly appropriate for carrying out any new scheme,

feeling of hopelessness, making it impossible even in the

and did, in fact, place a limit on what could be designed.42

first place to hope for, let alone conceive of, a monumental

The Capitania was the first public building to be completed

realization of the town plan and its Plaza Mayor. The past

in the new capital largely because materials from the former

175 years or so have demonstrated that this was not an un-

one in Antigua were made immediately available. The con-

founded fear, fear in the face of ever imminent disaster; for

struction of the Casas Consistoriales dragged on for long

every single building in the plaza has been destroyed in

years because the city council was completely impoverished

whole or in part. Even if Ibiaez' plan had been carried out

when its sources of income in Antigua were destroyed and

to the smallest detail, nothing would have remained, for the

no new revenues became immediately available while the

buildings of the plaza were finally obliterated in the earth-

new city was being built and settled.

quake of I917. It was only after the introduction of reinforced concrete construction in the twentieth century that

the plaza began to be girded with buildings of more than

one story for the first time in its history. But by that time

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.

which there was not-would have been totally meaningless.

All that is left of Ibanez' original conception today is the
emptiness of the open space.

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