The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-05-03
Quito, Capital OF Ecuador, High In
Mountains Retain Much Spanish Charm

from the air like an undulating
checkerboard broken by the domes
and spires of its many churches.
Like most towns of Spanish origin,
this capital is laid out in squares
with streets intersecting each other
at right angles. The houses are
generally two or three stories high,
pointed in vivid colors and built in
the old Spanish style with central
patio and red-tiled roof.
The public buildings, also, are con-
structed in the Spanish colonial
manner and are heavy square, mas
sive in a robust way, contrasting
somehow with the light colorfulness
of native markets where swarms the
poncho-garbed Indians crowd.
For in Quito the old and the new
world meet and blend as nowhere
else,-and while the architecture of
its fifty seven churches and mon
asteries again is based on the
Spanish Baroque Byzantine and
mudejar or Moorish-Spanish styles
there is a further indefnable quality
about them perhaps due to the native
Indian artisans and laborers, that
gives the city's buildings a unique
character and is the reason why, in
colonial times, "Quito Style" was
spoken of.
A city of churches, Quito is parti-
cularly famous for those of La
Companfa and San Francisco which
contain many rare treasurers and
works of art. La Companfa, the
Jesuit church, boasts one of the rich
est and most beautiful sculptured
facades in Latin America.
Inside the church, the stone is
elaborately carved throughout with
high-reliefs gilded and recesses
painted red, combination which
produces one of the most sumptuous
effects imaginable.
Ten side affairs, carved and covered
with gold plate surround the magni-
ficent glittering high altar whose
tabernacle used on special occasions,
is mass of precious stones.
San Francisco church (1534) the
most important in Quito for its size
and richness is not as impressive in
its ensemble. 1t may, however, be
considered Quito's best art museum
for it contains not only the work of
Manuel Chile Caspicara, the poor
Indian who was Quito's master wood
carver, but also many valuable
paintings among which are some by
Miguel de Santiago, one of the
greatest of Latin American painters,
founder of the Quito school of art,
believed to have died in 1878.
Extremely interesting, as well, is
the monastery of San Francisco,
which adjoins the church and in
whose library twelve thousand vol
umes, many of which ancient parche-
ment-bound tones, are conserved in
the shadow of the arches surround
ing an old garden with a fountain.
Some of Quito's renowned gold and
polychromo rotablos (altar pieces)
and colonial wood sculptures are also
found in many other churches and
shrines of the capital of Ecuador.
Among these are the Cathedral, the
Monasteries of Santa Domingo, of
San Diego and of San Agustin where
the treaty of independence of Ecua-
dor was signed.
Of quito is has been said that its
medieval color, its patriarchal GUS
toms, the calm and repose of its
atmosphere, the mildness of its
climate, the splendor of its equator
ial sun and its eternal springtime
make it the city of tranquility,
where a discriminating and cultured
spirit may find what is with much
difficulty discovered in this world:
peace, the best food for body and
| soul.