Throughout this past week we have been able to walk around much of Jesus Maria and other surrounding districts. Peru has a long history and I have been able to notice different time periods of their history through some the of architecture. I'm not an expert on architecture but I have taken an Art & Architecture class that mainly focused on European architecture. Although much of the churches here have not been well maintained, I have seen Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals.
On Monday, we toured the Cathedral of Lima where we walked down the side aisles looking at the chapels dedicated to various saints and cardinals of Lima. A cardinal is a step above a bishop and is one of the men who get to meet in the Sistine Chapel to elect the pope. The Cathedral had two separate crypts which was somewhat odd to me. The first crypt that we came to was located under the alter and was where local bishops and cardinals had been buried dating back to the middle of the 1500s. The second crypt was the one that I found uncommon. It had what looked like a married couple still in their wedding attire and probably ten other tombs that had skeleton remains. At the back of the second crypt there was a giant well that was 20 meters deep and almost 10 meters in diameter. I have no idea the significance of this well but I would guess it was also a burial site. The architecture of this church is Romanesque. The characteristics of Romanesque are round arches, thick walls, and small windows. The church was would have probably been one of the first things the Spanish built after conquering the Incas. The ribbed vaulting probably stood out to most of the students because its beautifully molded wood intercrossed on the ceiling. However, I would argue that this would have been added later by a bishop or cardinal who liked Gothic architect.
Romanesque churches are much darker since they have such small windows. The next style of architecture, Gothic, was sure to change that. Gothic architecture is easy to spot by the pointed arches, which allows the walls to hold was weight and which lead to the introduction of long stain glassed windows. On our way to the museums on Wednesday we pasted a small Gothic church that is not far from our hostel. Since it is still in Jesus Maria I plan on trying to attend mass tomorrow. If I am able to go, I will have been to a Catholic mass in four different continents! (Australia, North America, South America, and Europe)
On Thursday we visited ruins dating back to 200 B.C. at the Park of the Legends. This was the first time we got to see the architecture firsthand that the lead up to the architecture of the Incans. It was great to be able to walk around the park and see the evolution of the ancient architecture. In the park they had preserved different Huacas from four different civilizations; Estilos Locales (200 BC - 0), Cultura Lima (0 - 600 AD), Curacazgo de Maranga (1100 - 1450), Ocupacion Inca (1450 - 1532). Although there were some differences of styles between the different civilizations, the use of concentric shapes to form their builds remained fairly constant. These concentric shapes reminded me of the way to find the area under a curve without using an integral. One interesting thing about the architecture is that the Maranga and Incas both had what looked like giant stairs on the sides of the buildings which reminded me of buttressing which was used much in Gothic architecture.
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