Quito

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The whole of Quito lies in a long high furrow in the Andes, with the old town at its south-western end. Standing in front of San Francisco church, one looks downhill across the Plaza and over the rooftops ahead to where the mountains rise again to the east, their green slopes speckled with the pink and white of buildings. To the right - the south - another hill forms the end of the valley. This hill is called el Panecillo and was originally ...
...view the full panorama of Quito from above, but it is a stiff climb when one is already short of breath from the altitude. At nearly 3000 metres above sea level, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz (or third highest, if you regard Lhasa as a capital, as I would be inclined to). Apart from breathlessness, the other disincentive to ascending Panecillo is its reputation as a haunt of muggers. For this reason, the guidebooks ... more

We happened upon the Plaza de la Fundación rather by accident, because it does not feature prominently in the guide books. Fortunately, my wife and I had only just started out on our walk around the old town of Quito, and it helped us orient ourselves, both historically and geographically.

As its name implies, the Plaza de la Fundación was where the original Spanish colony was founded. An Inca city had stood on the site, but was hastily demolished by its inhabitants, a tribe who called themselves the Quitu, to prevent it falling intact into the hands of the conquerors. Not long before, the last Inca emperor Atahualpa had been perfidiously executed, despite a vast ransom having been paid for his release, thus starting an ignoble tradition that some Latin American kidnappers persist in upholding to this day. The Quitu must have known they could expect only treachery if they tried to negotiate an honourable settlement with the invading Spaniards.

Thus, on 6th December 1534 the Spanish captain Sebastián de Benalcázar gathered his victorious band around him amid the ruins and called for volunteers to start a colony. 204 put their hands up, and land was allocated to them according to their seniority, their prospective holdings being mapped out on a grid, like a chessboard, with the Plaza de la Fundación at its centre. That original map has not survived, but a permanent monument to the occasion is found in the form of a street-plan of the old city made of coloured stone slabs and brass plaques, let into the paving of the square. Looking down on it in stern approval from atop a plinth is a bronze stature of Benalcázar, but these days the square itself, though handsomely flanked by a former convent with white stucco cloisters, is a quiet backwater.

Or, at least, about as quiet a backwater as is to be found in the old town of Quito. The narrow colonial streets are ill-attuned to modern traffic, and even in the less busy thoroughfares the growl of engines, the squeal of tyres and the hoot of horns seem to pursue the visitor around, as do the exhaust fumes. Only in the larger squares does one escape; here the predominant noise is that of street-vendors' voices as they hawk everything from sweets and souvenirs to shoe-shines and shoe-laces.

One such square is the Plaza de San Francisco, just a few blocks south of la Fundación. Bare and stone-paved, it is dominated by the magnificent frontage of the church of the same name, on which building began just a year or so after the conquest; the soldiery having carved up their share of the spoils, it was the turn of the priests. The ornate grey stonework around the entrance is topped by twin bell-towers in glistening white and flanked by two long whitewashed walls, above and beyond which can be seen the slope of the Pinchincha volcano.

The whole of Quito lies in a long high furrow in the Andes, with the old town at its south-western end. Standing in front of San Francisco church, one looks downhill across the Plaza and over the rooftops ahead to where the mountains rise again to the east, their green slopes speckled with the pink and white of buildings. To the right - the south - another hill forms the end of the valley. This hill is called el Panecillo and was originally the site of a fort, but is now topped by a column bearing a statue of a winged woman, known as La Virgen de Quito, a copy of one of the altar decorations in San Francisco church.

The statue of the Virgen can be glimpsed from many vantage points across the city, whenever the narrow lanes permit. We were tempted by the thought of climbing the Panecillo peak to become better acquainted and to view the full panorama of Quito from above, but it is a stiff climb when one is already short of breath from the altitude. At nearly 3000 metres above sea level, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz (or third highest, if you regard Lhasa as a capital, as I would be inclined to). Apart from breathlessness, the other disincentive to ascending Panecillo is its reputation as a haunt of muggers. For this reason, the guidebooks all recommend taking a taxi, but, intent on seeing old Quito by foot, we didn't want to be diverted and as a result missed what is said to be a magnificent view.

We also missed the monastery of San Francisco that resides behind the church, a pity since it has the reputation of being a tranquil haven of cloisters and chapels. So tranquil is it, however, that it closes for a four-hour lunch break at 11.00 a.m. Unaware of this, we were at that time still enjoying a morning coffee at the open-air café in front of the church, a most pleasant spot from which to view the setting and surrounding architecture. The three sides of the Plaza not occupied by the church are, like much of the old town, built in a kind of Spanish colonial baroque, with ornate window-frames and cornices picked out in white against deep pastel-shaded plasterwork while vestigial wrought-iron balconies front the upstairs windows. It is an elegant style, and one I find appealing.

In an older style, almost as old as the church itself, and open to the public through the day, is the adjacent Cantuña Chapel. This is named after a native noble who survived the conquest by converting to christianity, but was constrained to prove his good faith by devoting his wealth to building the chapel, a task for which he was set an unrealistically tight timescale. Legend has it that he sold his soul to the devil for help in meeting the deadline, only to evade fulfilling his side of the bargain by dislodging an unobtrusive stone at the last moment so that, although it passed muster, the construction was not technically complete. Anyone who can emerge intact from doing deals both with the conquistadors and the devil deserves respect, and even if his fortune was spent, Cantuña has a magnificently decorated chapel to preserve his memory, and one that now houses a fine collection of religious art.

As in many Latin American cities, you can't escape catholicism for long in old Quito. Heading on south from the Plaza de San Francisco will bring you in no time to the convent of Carmen Alto, below which a canopy-like arch covers the street. It was built in the 18th century as a shelter for the poor, who could take refuge there at the cost of being spiritually sustained by listening to the songs of praise emanating from the convent church above it.

Just beyond the arch is the city museum, with displays depicting life in Quito from pre-historic times to the present, and beyond that one is almost at the end of the old town, in the shadow of El Panecillo hill. Turning east here, one descends sharply downhill. The street soon ducks under a bridge and funnels into a cobbled alley lined by shops and houses sporting Ecuadorian flags. This is the beginning of Calle La Ronda, long a bohemian quarter and very rundown until recently resuscitated with official encouragement. The flags are soon left behind, but the alley is no less colourful further down, with shops selling art, antiques and ornaments lurking behind painted façades. Cafés too, but the area was very quiet on the day we were there, and its regeneration has an air of unfinished business. It no longer feels like an artists' quarter nor yet like a successful commercial one, for all its superficial smartening.

Turning sharp left uphill on meeting the trolley-bus line at the bottom brings the visitor quickly to the bustle of the Plaza de Santo Domingo, another bare paved square surrounded by fine colonial architecture, museums and (inevitably) churches. Standing in the square are a large stone cross (also inevitably - there are large stone crosses all over the place in old Quito) and a statue of Mariscal Sucre. The marshal was a notable commander in the wars of the 1820s that won independence from Spain for its former South American colonies. His figure is shown pointing north-west towards the slope of Mt Pinchincha on which the battle was fought that gave Quito its freedom, or a more local gang of oppressors, at least. In the same direction, but much nearer at hand, is the house in which he planned to settle after the wars' conclusion. He was killed before this plan could be enacted, but the house is now a museum dedicated to relics of the wars and life in the period.

Having turned back in this direction it's worth continuing a block or two to visit the Compañia (Jesuit) church, which has an intricately-carved Italianate frontage in grey stone and a sumptuously decorated interior, to which half a ton of gold was devoted as well as many other costly materials. In Quito as elsewhere, the Jesuit order was determined not to be outdone for magnificence by the mainstream church. The decoration is also notable for incorporating a variety of styles - essentially baroque, but with both Moorish features reminiscent of Andalucia and local motifs, such as those of the sun, which presumably were an added lure for impressionable locals. As a mere visitor, I found myself both impressed by its artistry and appalled by the plundering that had paid for it, a reaction often experienced on seeing the religious monuments of South America.

It was therefore a kind of relief to find the cathedral itself, just round the corner in the Plaza Grande, less impressive, a relief tempered by the thought that this would be just as the Jesuits would have wished. The Plaza Grande, the main square of old Quito, is much greener than the others through which we have passed, with little parterres planted with palms, citrus trees and rose-bushes. We are now in the administrative centre of Quito, with the Governor's colonaded mansion on one side of the square and other official buildings down adjacent streets, guarded by ceremonially uniformed sentries.

This area is generally more animated than the outlying streets, with many shops and shoppers, though most of the shops are modest in scale and style, selling everyday foodstuffs, clothing and household goods. The old town is no longer a fashionable shopping area, and for Quito's equivalent of Bond Street one must look elsewhere. Prices seem cheap by European standards. We notice leather shoes in a cobbler's shop going for $10 a pair. All the prices are in US dollars, which Ecuador adopted formally as its currency a few years ago, making comparison easy. There are also many cafés, some little more than open shop-fronts with a few tables inside, some much more substantial and well-furnished. Again, apart from a few posh hotels, prices are very reasonable; full, flavoursome-looking meals can easily be found for just a few dollars.

One street particularly well-furnished with such restaurants, many of them with tables outside as well as in, is the Espejo, which descends from the south-eastern corner of the Plaza Grande. Here too can be found the Teatro Bolivar, an attractive pink Art Decoish building, now in very poor repair. Apparently, performances still take place here despite it having been partially burnt out by a fire some years ago.

Quito's other notable theatre, the Sucre, has been lavishly restored in all its neoclassical glory, looking for all the world like the kind of opera house that graces many a European capital. It fronts onto the eponymous Plaza del Teatro, on the opposite side of which we found a café with open-air tables to enjoy a bowl of locros, the thick local soup that comes with side dishes of cheese, chopped avocado and roast beans to stir into it according to one's taste. In front of us was a bench ornamented with a piece of public art, the bronze statue of a man sitting on it, looking across at the theatre. A shower of rain suddenly started, as it often does in the afternoon in Quito after a sunny morning, and the square quickly cleared, leaving only a young girl of perhaps eight or nine, who chatted amicably with the bronze man, leaning on his elbow, until her mother eventually succeeded in calling her away. Reluctantly, she complied, turning to wave as she did so. As in any city, one of the pleasures of wandering round old Quito is to observe these little human episodes.

From the Plaza de Teatro it is only a few blocks further to the Plaza de San Blas, which marks the northern limit of the old town. Beyond lie the business district and the area known as Mariscal, also named after the ubiquitous Sucre, which is the modern shopping and entertainment hub of Quito, and where most of the big tourist hotels are located, which has given it the alternative soubriquet of Gringoland. My wife and I never penetrated into this part of Quito except by taxi on our way to and from the airport, and for an account of it I would invite you to look at the excellent review of Quito by Butimba, who knows the whole city much better than I do, having lived there for a while.

Rather than return directly to the Plaza Grande, you can take a steep street from the Plaza San Blas up to the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which sits on a high hill dominating the northward view from the old town and, with its twin-steepled Gothic front, looks for all the world like a mediaeval structure. In fact, it dates only back to the 1920s, though it has some interesting decorative features, such as iguanas and other local animals taking the place of gargoyles. Apparently you can climb up inside the steeples for a great view when the church is open, but make sure you time your arrival accordingly, since, as we discovered, it closes at 5.00 p.m.

We were, in any case, rather churched out by this time; I haven't mentioned more than half the ones we paused to peek inside, for fear of this review becoming a mere catalogue of Quito's numerous ecclesiastical establishments. So, instead, it was back down the Calle Garcia Moreno - known locally as the "street of the seven crosses"; yes, you've guessed, from the crosses outside the seven churches that front onto it - to our hotel, the Patio Andaluz. As its name implies, the hotel occupies an old building arranged in the traditional Andalucian pattern around internal courtyards, which are now filled with the restaurant and bar. Very comfortable it is too, and conveniently just round the corner from the Plaza Grande, with plenty of other places to eat near at hand if you don't mind venturing out after dark. There is some street crime in Quito, though I believe it is more rife in touristy Gringoland than in the old city.

There are countless things to do in and around Quito which we never experienced at all. With just one day at our disposal, we decided to concentrate entirely on the old town, and the perambulation described above did, I like to think, give us a feel for it, though the visit was still too rushed for full benefit. If you're not interested in architecture or the ambience of well-worn places, it probably wouldn't be for you. If you are, try to allocate more than one day, if only to be sure you don't miss the opening hours at the main attractions, which are tricky to schedule into a tight visit. If you are a committed connoisseur of catholic churches, you will probably need at least a week.

It is in its way a beautiful old city, splendidly situated amid its cordon of mountains, and remarkably well-preserved. Paradoxical as it may sound, old Quito may have been saved from over-development because it ceased to be fashionable as a place for the Ecuadorian rich to live or shop or do business. As a result, it is slightly rundown, but only slightly and not in an unsavoury way, whilst it remains full of historic and human interest.

© torr 2008

Visited October 2007. 

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