Old School Quito

For those of you that don´t know, Quito is divided into two distinct areas (well for the tourists anyway). Creatively these two areas are known as Old Town and New Town. All the gringos hop it to New Town as this is safer, newer (obviously), closer to the tour operators, and slap bang in the middle of the bars, restaurants and cyber cafes. Old Town is the colonial heart of Quito and contains the most interesting architecture and cultural spots.

I headed down to the Old Town on a Sunday as it is a lot quieter in the city and, as a result, the smaller streets are not as crowded. The architecture of the buildings is how you expect them to be in South America from all those cinematic portrayals of Spanish style buildings. Those of you from Hastings think the Opera House or whatever it´s called.

There are a number of plazas that are the main sort of hubs in Old Town. Generally if you head towards those you find the more interesting churches and buildings, as well as seeing the locals congregating.

My first port of call was Plaza Santo Domingo. There wasn´t much to see there but I took some snaps of Iglesia Santo Domingo and also of the Statue of the Virgin Mary on the hill overlooking Old Town, named El Panecillo.

The next stop was the Museo de la Ciudad (or in English Museum of the City of Quito). The museum was housed in a old hospital which had two lovely internal courtyards with fountains. In one wing was a beautiful old church with a lovely gold altar and surrounds. The museum had a number of displays showing life in Quito from the colonial period of the city right up until the late 19th century.

After this museum I head up towards Plaza San Francisco but on the way my attention was grabbed by a lovely looking church named Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus. As there was no church service on at the time I had to pay a US$2 fee to get in, but boy oh boy was it worth it. My Lonely Planet guide notes that apparently 7 tonnes of gold was used to guild the interior of the church, and upon stepping into the church you knew it was all that, then some. This has to be the most inspiring church I have ever been in, it was beautifully ornate and the shine from the gold was like sunshine. If St Peter´s in Rome is just as inspiring as this church was then I can´t wait to get there! I have a policy of not taking photos in churches (and they also didn´t allow cameras inside) so unfortunately I don´t have a photo to show you just how beautiful this church was. Building of the church began in 1605 by the Jesuit order and wasn´t completed until about 1765. Just before it was finished the Jesuits got kicked out of South America and they only got the church back in the last century or so.

I finally got to Plaza San Francisco and made a beeline for the church of the same name. This is the oldest church in Quito (if not Ecuador???) and the interior, though not as beautiful as La Compañia was a good example of a baroque church. I got there just after the sermon so I stayed for the Eucharist, so I have managed to get to church one of these Sundays. Next door was the Monastery of San Francisco which holds quite an interesting museum but unfortunately it was closed.

The next stop on my Old Town Old School tour was the Plaza de la Indepencia. This square houses the presidential palace, as well as the Cathedral and another church called El Sagrario. The plaza was full of people just chillin out and I got some nice photos of the exteriors of the abovementioned buildings. The churches were closed but after La Compañia I knew they would be a let down.

By this stage I was full up on colonial architecture and strolled my merry way back to gringo town for some food and a little bit of cable television. Once again, when I sort out some photos it will add to my wonderful descriptions above!