Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-24
AZTEC ARCHITECTURE.
The Endurance of the Old Mexican
Buildings.

From the Hobart metropolitan.
THE Mexicans or the Aztec Indians can
give the people Of the United States les
sons In architecture and In solid construc-
ton of buildings There are buildings
standing today In the City Of Mexico that
have stood for three centuries and are In
an excellent state of preservation. There
is not frame building in the city. There
are few adobe, but most all stone,
brick or cement. There Is brick building
down In the old part of town that was
erected prior to 1850.
1T shows that so long ago as that the
Indians were experts in the manufacture
of bricks. But probably so per cent OF all
the buildings are made of concrete cement.
In the United States within the last few
years experiments have been made in the
erection of buildings out of manufactured
stone but they have been pronounced, as
you know, by the insurance people as I'M
safe 1t Is not because they are not as
solid as the brick and stone, but on account
of the interior work OF the American me-
chanic In that line. Cement and concrete
have been used successfully in Mexico for
500 years, and all the cathedrals and
churches are of that material. On the line
of the Vera Cruz Pacific can be seen the
ruins of Toro Bravo, where there are evi-
dences Of a city ruined centuries ago.
There are some twenty pyramids of solid
cement which must have been erected
over 800 years ago. One of these pyramids
Is ITO feet In height. and on the summit
rests cement ledge thirty feet in dame
ter. This well others, is of filigree
work and carved statuary.
Near this stands another Of white lime
stone, built in four terraces, with carvings
and concentrations which would put to
shame the modern American sculptor It
has stood all these centuries yet the lime
stone Is much easier broken than the
cement. Think of a town Of almost 100000
persons, and the fire record is three in one
year. The inside walls of many of the
buildings are as much as six feet through,
and all buildings are built around courts.
There is no provision In any of them for
hres. and at the present time small coal
Oil stoves are selling In the city for $40
the same that sell for So In the states. The
floors are OF stone, the ceiling of fligree
cement. the walls of coarse plaster and
almost without exception hand painted.
The architecture on many buildings in the
republic shows that the Indian of CEN
turie4 ago was ahead Of the modern
builder of today.
IT was out to the shrine of Guadeloupe
the other day-a few miles out from the
city. There is an old story that. Satur-
day morning. Recember 8. 1881. an image
of a woman appeared before an Indian
named Juan Diego. on top of the Tepeyacac
mountain. The Virgin told him in his WIS.,
lon to tell the bishop to erect a temple in
her memory on the hillside and dedicate 1t
to the holy shrine. 1t Ia said that he
gathered a bunch of flowers on the hill
that never before had produced vegetation.
and when presenting 1t to the bishop there
appeared on the flowers the picture of the
Virgin Mary The story was taken to the
pope of Rome, who refused to countenanee
It. But few years later the finest shrine
In the world WAS built on the spot where
the Virgin appeared. and 1t stands today. q
bewildering. amazing monument of modern
architecture projected hundreds of years
ago. It Is given up to be the finest place of
worship on the western hemisphere, and
was built by Indians for Indian worship.
The RI hest and the poorest are seen here
hourly. kneeling and praying aloud to the
Virgin. AT certain times OF the year thou
sands and thousands of Indians come from
distances Of thousand miles TO worship at
this shrine. 1t must be remembered that
90 per cent of the population of Mexico is
Indian, but ali speak the Spanish Ian
guage."