Casa del Alabado is an active cultural space that offers, through its temporary exhibitions and agenda, an articulation between artifacts and contemporary perspectives, through a permanent conversation with artists, academics, cultural managers, creators, and researchers. Through the enhancement, research and conservation of nearly five thousand pieces that are part of the archaeological heritage of the country, and educational and cultural programs, our work connects the past with the social and cultural life of the present.
History
Casa del Alabado, in its four centuries of existence, has been a privileged witness to Quito’s historic transformations, from its Spanish foundation in 1534 to the present. It is one of the oldest and best-preserved colonial houses in the city. Its name comes from an inscription engraved in a stone lintel over the main entrance that states: «Alabado sea el santísimo sacramento. Acabose esta portada a 1 de [...] de 1671 años.» This religious reference was a common detail in door lintels during colonial times and illustrates one of the main milestones of the building: a modification of its façade before 1671. Thus, it is likely that the house was built earlier, in the late 16th or early 17th century.
Casa del Alabado occupies a distinctive location on a narrow colonial street named Cuenca —previously known as «Calle de la Corte» or «Calle del cajón de agua» —which connects two important Plazas in Quito. The first, to the north, is Plaza de San Francisco, one of the most emblematic in South America. It unfolds from the atrium and stone steps of the San Francisco church and convent. Its construction began in 1537 and it is known for being the largest colonial architectonic ensemble in South America, covering an area of about nine acres, or three and a half hectares.
This Plaza was a Tianguez, a point of commercial trade, and a water source for the city. During modernity in the Andes —the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century—, it was replaced by a garden square according to new municipal policies. Today, it maintains its original function as an open Plaza and is one of the most important sites in Quito’s Historic Center. Since the Republic, it has been a place for religious congregation and home to intense political and social events.
The second Plaza, located south of Casa del Alabado, is Santa Clara: a small square from the 16th century built at the edge of the Colonial city’s limits, in front of the temple of Santa Clara. At the start of the 20th century, it was renovated as a modern market with an iron and glass structure. At the turn of the 21st century, the modern structure was relocated to the Itchimbía hill to become a cultural center known as Palacio de Cristal and the Santa Clara square returned to its original purpose as a city plaza.
The main style of Casa del Alabado corresponds to the colonial period. Its origin is Andalusian with Arabic influence. Originally, the house had five interior patios4, an orchard, and stables for animals. Two-story houses were known as casas de alto5. The main patio of the house was a key element of the spatial organization of domestic life. It was also a space for everyday gatherings and encounters that commonly reflected the social separation norms and hierarchies of the colonial context. As opposed to the elaborate and monumental forms of religious architecture expressed in the richness of the Baroque style, civil and residential architecture in colonial Quito emphasized simplicity, as in the façade of Casa del Alabado.
During the Republican period, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the house served multiple purposes, and the ways in which its residents inhabited the home varied greatly along with the migratory waves of the first half of the 20th century. The population of Quito quintupled and left behind the quiet and small Andean town formed between hillsides and ravines that counted only forty thousand inhabitants toward the end of the 19th century. The population growth resulted in a dramatic urban expansion of the city, beyond the limits of the colonial grid, to seven times its original size.
Casa del Alabado was inhabited by dozens of families from popular, middle class and working-class sectors over the course of the 20th century, while some of its spaces were converted for storage and commercial purposes. The house had several ownership changes and its internal architecture was rearranged multiple times during this period. By the end of the last century, time had left a heavy imprint on the old house.
After a careful work of architectural and museum intervention to enhance the value of the building, the house opened its doors in 2010 as Casa del Alabado Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, a new cultural center and museum for the city.
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