The Historic City of Quito, Ecuador: The First UNESCO World Heritage Site
This is part of a series of posts from our trip to Ecuador this past December
In my last post, I kicked off a new series of posts that will feature images from a trip my ladyfriend Serena and I took to Ecuador this past December. It was a trip that started out with me finding out (on the night before our flight) that my passport was set to expire within 6 months(!) Fortunately, I was able to get a new passport in Miami a few days later and meet up with Serena in the city of Quito four days after she arrived.
Quito is the capital of Ecuador and the oldest capital city in all South America (not to mention the place that Serena was born and raised). It sits high in the Andes mountains at 9,350 feet, making it either the highest or the second-highest national capital city in the world due to Bolivia having multiple capitals, La Paz, with an elevation of 11,975 feet, and Sucre at 9,150 feet.
Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, Quito
Archaeological evidence suggests that it was first settled by sedentary populations between 4400 and 1600 BC. The Quitu people ruled over Quito from 2000 BCE until the invasion of the Inca, a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains sometime in the early 13th century. Quito’s historic old town was founded by the Spanish in 1534 after the conquest of the Inca Empire; and despite the 1917 earthquake, the city has the best-preserved, least altered historic center in Latin America.
In 1743, after nearly 210 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city of about 10,000 inhabitants. In 1809, it led Latin America’s independence movement. This initial movement was defeated on August 2, 1810, when colonial troops arrived from Lima, Peru, and killed the leaders of the uprising and about 200 other settlers.
Palacio Municipal, Plaza de la Independencia, Quito
The independence of Quito was finally established when Venezuelan general Antonio José de Sucre, under the command of Simón Bolívar, led troops into the Battle of Pichincha in May 24, 1822. Bolívar, a Venezuelan military officer, led what are currently the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela to independence from the Spanish Empire. He is known colloquially as El Libertador (“the Liberator”) of America.
Fiestas de Quito
In 1978, Quito and Kraków were the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO. Today, Quito has a population of just under 3 million people and when I arrived, it was in the middle of its annual Fiestas de Quito which celebrates the foundation of the city, promoting its culture, art, and heritage through concerts, marching bands and parades featuring the newly chosen Reina de Quito throughout the city.
Quito’s elevation of 9,350 feet makes walking around the city a bit difficult on the lungs and/or lead to light-headedness. However, with cameras in both our hands (Serena is also a photographer) and the streets bustling with activity, we managed to make our way around the city with minimal huffing and puffing. Let’s start with one of the parades we stumbled upon during our first night in Quito…
Instituto Nacional Mejía
On June 1, 1897, by decree of the National Assembly, the Mejía National Institute was founded, the first secular institution in Ecuador. The school was named in honor of José Mejía Lequerica, a professor and politician from Quito of Spanish descent from the Viceroyalty of New Granada. This is their nationally recognized Banda de Guerra y Bastoneras…
Calle García Moreno
García Moreno Street, also known as De las Siete Cruces (Street of the Seven Crosses) is one of the main and oldest thoroughfares in the historic center. It leads to the Virgen del Panecillo, a monument located on the top of the hill of El Panecillo. The street is named after two-time conservative President of Ecuador Gabriel Gregorio García Moreno, who was assassinated by a group of men with machetes as Moreno entered the Carondelet Palace on August 6, 1875.
Virgen del Panecillo
At 41 meters tall, including its base, the Virgen del Panecillo is the tallest statue in Ecuador and one of the tallest in South America, surpassing even the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. It is also the tallest aluminum sculpture in the world. The assembly of the 7400 aluminum pieces that make up the statue, which had been designed and built by the Spaniard Agustín de la Herrán Matorras in Madrid, was transported by ship to Ecuador. It was finished in 1974.
Monumento a la Independencia
Also known as the ‘Monumento a los Héroes del 10 de agosto de 1809’ because on that day, Quito declared its disobedience to the Spanish power when several men from the wealthiest class seized the Royal Palace and deposed Count Ruiz de Castilla from his position as President of the Royal Audiencia of Quito.
In 1898, at the initiative of the Liberal president Eloy Alfaro, plans began to erect a monument commemorating the August 10th revolution and (spoiler alert!) subsequent assassination of the Quito heroes. It was believed that a sculptural work of that magnitude could not be undertaken in Ecuador at that time. So, through the Ecuadorian Consul in Paris, they contacted the best sculptors in Europe.
A proposal submitted in 1903 by Francisco Manuel Durini Cáceres, an Italian-Swiss architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in Quito, beat out proposals from fifteen renowned sculptors (including Frederic A. Bartholdi, the creator of the Statue of Liberty in New York) who were vying for the opportunity to create the monument.
The Monumento a la Independencia was transported to Quito in pieces from the port of Genoa (in Italy!) via the Strait of Magellan (the Panama Canal did not yet exist!) as well as by train and on the backs of pack animals(!) After a complicated assembly process, the monument was inaugurated on August 10, 1906.
Calle La Ronda
La Ronda, a historic cobblestone street located in the Historic Center, has origins dating back to the colonial era. During the colonial period and part of the republican era, it was one of the busiest streets in the city due to its location within the urban center.
Officially known as Calle Juan de Dios Morales (a prominent lawyer, patriot, and key mastermind of the First Cry of Independence in Quito on August 10, 1809) its name comes from the verb ‘rondar’ or to patrol, as it lay on the city’s southern limits. For centuries it has been a meeting point for artists, artisans, and writers from Quito.
The construction of a nearby bus station in the 1970s shifted traffic and triggered a steep economic decline, turning the historic street into a dangerous area plagued by crime. It wasn’t until the year 2006, when the Municipality started the recovery of the whole neighborhood providing new cobblestones, walls with fresh paint, houses completely renovated, special lighting in the tunnels, balconies with colorful flowerpots, and new streetlights.
With the renewed interest in La Ronda, it has once again become a traditional spot for nightlife and tourists. Along the street, you can find restaurants, cafes, craft shops, and cultural spaces offering musical and artistic performances. We stumbled upon a cultural performance coming through La Ronda celebrating the Fiestas de Quito…
And this short video shares not only the sights but the sounds of that joyous procession. You can see Serena (in the green sweater) enthusiastically snapping photographs near the end of the video…
La Ronda at Night
Churches of Quito
One thing I noticed is that Quito has an unusually high number of churches. I’ll get to the why in a follow up post but for now, I’ll introduce a few that we visited as we walked around the city…
Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco
The Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, commonly known as El San Francisco, is a Catholic basilica that stands in the middle of the historic center, in front of the square of the same name. It is the oldest and most significant religious site in Ecuador and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “City of Quito”.
Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito), also known simply as La Compañía, is one of the most significant baroque structures of South America. The facade of its main church, carved entirely from volcanic stone, is considered one of the most important expressions of Baroque architecture in the Americas and the world.
Iglesia de El Sagrario
The Church of El Sagrario is a Catholic church located in the city’s Historic Center, on García Moreno Street, formerly known as “De las Siete Cruces” (Street of the Seven Crosses). The construction of the church took place between the 17th and 18th centuries. Spanish architect José Jaime Ortiz designed the construction of the church.
Museo Catedral Primada de Quito
The Cathedral Museum of Quito, is housed within the historic Metropolitan Cathedral located on the southwestern side of the Plaza de la Independencia in the heart of the city’s Old Town. As one of the oldest cathedrals in South America, the museum offers visitors a deep dive into Ecuador’s colonial and religious history.
Basílica del Voto Nacional
The Basílica del Voto Nacional arose from the idea of building a monument as a perpetual reminder of the consecration of the Republic of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, proposed by Father Julio Matovelle, a member of parliament in 1883. Although not completely finished, the building, as it is known today, was completed in 1924.
