page_title: Spanish Colonial architecture
section_title: City planning: a royal ordinance
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish Colonial architecture / City planning: a royal ordinance
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Old Manila in 1851. From the collection of University of Texas in Austin Library. Repaired by User:Briarfallen.
context_page_description: Spanish Colonial architecture represents Spanish colonial influence on New World and East Indies' cities and towns, and it is still being seen in the architecture as well as in the city planning aspects of conserved present-day cities. These two visible aspects of the city are connected and complementary. The 16th century Laws of the Indies included provisions for the layout of new colonial settlements in the Americas and elsewhere.
  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. In order for that to be achievable, they had to be strategically located – at the center of a town square or at a higher point in the landscape. These elements are common and can also be found in almost every city and town in Spain.
context_section_description: In 1513 the monarchs wrote out a set of guidelines that ordained the conduct of Spaniards in the New World as well as that of the Indians that they found there. With regards to city planning, these ordinances had details on the preferred location of a new town and its location relative to the sea, mountains and rivers. It also detailed the shape and measurements of the central plaza taking into account the spacing for purposes of trade as well as the spacing for purposes of festivities or even military operations—occasions that involved horse-riding. 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. All town homes are to be so planned that they can serve as a defense or fortress against those who might attempt to create disturbances or occupy the town. Each house is to be so constructed that horses and household animals can be kept therein, the courtyards and stockyards being as large as possible to insure health and cleanliness.
caption: Map of the walled city of Intramuros in Manila with elements of colonial planning called Laws of the Indies present.
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