III.

Colonial Church Design

Another priority of the Iberian conquerors was the mass conversion of native people to Christianity. For this purpose they created a new architectural type: a large, open-air sanctuary called an atrio. Atrio complexes of the 16th century, such as those built for Franciscan missionaries in Mexico, consist of a huge, square courtyard with a large stone pavilion, or posa, at each of the four corners. Native Americans were first forced to erect the atrios and were then brought into them for religious conversion by the thousands. The posas at the mission at Huejotzingo (1540s) in Mexico reflect a mixture of Spanish sternness and native craftsmanship typical of this period in rural areas.

In major cities the early colonial architecture of the Spaniards and Portuguese adheres more strictly to Iberian styles. The first cathedral in the Americas was the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (1512-1541), designed by Spanish architect Rodrigo de Liendo. The cathedral facade features classical archways combined with elaborate ornamentation. It closely follows the plateresque style then popular in Spain, which combined the classical structure of Italian Renaissance architecture with the detailed carving of late gothic decoration. In Mexico City, the much larger , along with the adjacent Sagrario Chapel, reflects several centuries of Spanish styles. The two structures include elements of the austere, unornamented Herreran style, named for the 16th-century Spanish architect Juan de Herrera; the ornate baroque Churrigueresque style of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, named for Spanish architect José Benito Churriguera; and the simple dignity of the 19th-century neoclassical style. Construction of the cathedral began in the 1560s and ended in 1813. More typical of Mexico are styles that mix folk and baroque influences and appear in the Soledad Church in Oaxaca and the Tepalcingo Church in Morelos, both from about 1700. These churches feature densely sculpted facades resembling the ornate altarpieces characteristic of Latin American church interiors.

In early colonial Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Jesuit and Benedictine religious orders built monastic complexes and fortress-churches in what was known as the Portuguese plain style. The style was named for the unadorned exteriors and simple, rectilinear whitewashed facades that characterize it. Portuguese builders and their patrons used this stern style as a means of imposing a sense of discipline and European order on the colony. Unlike in Mexico, builders in colonial Brazil generally reserved extravagant decoration for church interiors, which featured richly carved and gilded wooden altarpieces and colorful blue-and-white azulejos (traditional Portuguese ceramic tiles). Azulejo decorations are found in Nossa Senhora da Glória do Outeiro (Our Lady of Glory on the Hillock) in Rio de Janeiro, an early 18th-century church attributed to Portuguese engineer José Cardoso Romalho. Like most colonial Brazilian buildings, the church exterior is of whitewashed masonry with brown stone trim. Whitewashing exteriors, an Iberian tradition inherited from North Africa, was a practical way of adapting to the hot local climate: The heat of the tropical sun reflects off the white surface rather than penetrating to the interior of the building.