Spanish Colonial architecture
[1] To achieve the desired effect of inspiring awe among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as creating a legible and militarily manageable landscape, the early colonizers used and placed the new architecture within planned townscapes and mission compounds.
The new churches and mission stations, for example, aimed for maximum effect in terms of their imposition and domination of the surrounding buildings or countryside.
Some of the most famous cities in Mexico built in the Colonial style are Puebla, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Guanajuato, and Morelia.
The city of Antigua is famous for its well-preserved Spanish Mudéjar-influenced Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches dating from the 16th century.
[2] Also, Old San Juan with its walled city and buildings (ranging from 1521 to the early 20th century) are very good examples, and in excellent condition.
It was used in the construction of residential homes, the City Gate, the Cathedral Basilica, the Castillo de San Marcos, and Fort Matanzas.
[3] According to UNESCO, Quito, Ecuador, has the best-preserved, and least-altered historic centre (320 hectares) in Latin America, despite several earthquakes.
In contrast to the orders given much later on how the city should be laid out, Ferdinand II did not give specific instructions for how to build the new settlements in the Caribbeans.
In addition to specifying the location of the church, the orientation of roads that run into the main plaza as well as the width of the street with respect to climatic conditions, the guidelines also specified the order in which the city must be built.
The building lots and the structures erected thereon are to be so situated that in the living rooms one can enjoy air from the south and from the north, which are the best.
In addition to describing other aspects of the interactions between the Spanish conquerors and the natives they encountered, these laws ordained the specific ways new settlements should be laid out.
Modern cities in Latin America have grown, and consequently erased or jumbled the previous standard spatial and social organization of the cityscape.
Elites do not always live closer to the city center, and the point-space occupied by individuals is not necessarily determined by their social status.
The central plaza, the wide streets and a grid pattern are still common elements in Mexico City and Puebla de Los Angeles.
It is not uncommon in modern-founded towns, especially those in remote areas of Latin America, to have retained the "checkerboard layout" even to present day.
He insisted on carrying out the building of a new city where the Indian Empire had stood, and he incorporated features of the old plaza into the new grid.
The point here is that Cortés accomplished the planning and was on his way to finish the building of Mexico City before the royal ordinances addressed specifically to him even arrived.
In places of dense indigenous settlement, such as in Central Mexico, the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians) built churches on the sites of pre-Hispanic temples.
Specifically suited for the hot tropics of the new Far East territory, European architecture was transposed via Acapulco, Mexico into a uniquely Filipino style.
