La Merced Cloister

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View of patio from behind columns of the upper floor Upper floor of La Merced Cloister, Mexico City.jpg
View of patio from behind columns of the upper floor
Patio of the La Merced Cloister LaMercedDFPatio.JPG
Patio of the La Merced Cloister

The La Merced Cloister is all that is left of a monastery complex built in the late 16th and early 17th century by the Mercedarian order. [1] It is located on Uruguay and Talavera Streets in the historic downtown of Mexico City. [2] The complex lent its name to the area around it, La Merced, which in turn, inspired the name of the metro station and the famous La Merced market. [3]

Mexico City Capital in Mexico

Mexico City, or the City of Mexico, is the capital of Mexico and the most populous city in North America. Mexico City is one of the most important cultural and financial centres in the Americas. It is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus in the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,350 ft). The city has 16 boroughs.

Metro Merced metro station in Mexico City

Merced is an underground station on Line 1 of the Mexico City Metro. It is located in the Venustiano Carranza borough, slightly to the east of the centre of Mexico City. The station building was designed by Félix Candela, and it was opened on 4 September 1969.

Contents

History

Corner view showing the doubling of columns from lower to upper floor CornerUpperFloorMercedDF.JPG
Corner view showing the doubling of columns from lower to upper floor

The Order of Mercedarians came to Mexico in 1593. Before establishing missions and churches in other parts of Mexico, the La Merced Monastery was established between the 16th and 17th centuries in Mexico City. [4] The complex was designed and constructed by Juan de Herrera. [2] The first stage of monastery's construction was begun with its church, now gone, begun in 1594 and ended toward the mid 17th century. [1] [3] The second stage, consisting mostly of the upper floor, was consecrated in 1703. [1]

Juan de Herrera Spanish architect

Juan de Herrera was a Spanish architect, mathematician and geometrician.

Due to the Reform Laws, the church and other parts of this monastery were destroyed in 1862, leaving only the one cloister that remains to this day. The only documentation of how the monastery looked before is preserved in an 1842 painting of the complex by Pedro Gualdi. [4] The first post-Reform use of the building was as a military barracks, resulting in the destruction of the west facade and the heavy modification of the southern one. [2] In later years, the cloister would serve as a gymnasium, school, museum, child care center and INBA (National Fine Arts Institute) tapestry workshop. [1]

Reform War 1858-1861 armed conflict in Mexico

The War of Reform in Mexico, during the Second Federal Republic of Mexico, was the three-year civil war between members of the Liberal Party who had taken power in 1855 under the Plan of Ayutla, and members of the Conservative Party resisting the legitimacy of the government and its radical restructuring of Mexican laws, known as La Reforma. The War of the Reform is one of many episodes of the long struggle between Liberal and Conservative forces that dominated the country’s history in the 19th century. The Liberals wanted to eliminate the political, economic, and cultural power of the Catholic church as well as undermine the role of the Mexican Army. Both the Catholic Church and the Army were protected by corporate or institutional privileges (fueros) established in the colonial era. Liberals sought to create a modern nation-state founded on liberal principles. The Conservatives wanted a centralist government, some even a monarchy, with the Church and military keeping their traditional roles and powers, and with landed and merchant elites maintaining their dominance over the majority mixed-race and indigenous populations of Mexico.

Cloister open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries

A cloister is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is part of a monastic foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the monks from that of the serfs and workmen, whose lives and works went forward outside and around the cloister."

One reason this building has managed to survive to the present day is that it was the home and studio of artist Dr. Atl in the 1920s. When he moved in, it was in very poor condition, forcing him to live on the building's roof. Later, he restored the patio area, reconstructed the back part of the building and replaced the balustrades of the upper floor. [4] From 1927 to the 1930s this was the location of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado.

Dr. Atl Mexican artist

Gerardo Murillo Cornado was a Mexican painter and writer who signed his works "Dr. Atl".

La Esmeralda - National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking is a Mexican art school located in Mexico City.

Description

Tower on south or street side of the building TowerLaMercedDF.JPG
Tower on south or street side of the building
Closeup of corner column on upper floor CloseupCornerColumnMercedDF.JPG
Closeup of corner column on upper floor

The cloister is noted for its mix of Baroque and Mudéjar elements, [1] and has been called one of the most beautiful monasteries built in Mexico because of its elaborate decoration. [1] [2] [4] In the middle is a patio, surrounded by two floors of columns with arches, behind which are walkways. A large staircase leads to the upper floor and tower next to the street. On each of the four sides of the patio, the seven ground-floor columns divide into fourteen upper-floor columns. The ground-floor columns are of Doric style and the keystones of each of the arches bear medallions with images of apostles or Mercedarian friars. [1] The columns of the upper floor, built later, have more decoration than the lower. [4] These columns are decorated with lattices intertwined with foliage and fruit. [1] [2] The spaces between the pilasters are decorated in Baroque style, with sculpted images of Mercedarian friars in the triangles that extend from the arches to the ceiling. [2] On the undersides of the arches, small pyramids point downwards. [1] [2]

Baroque architecture building style of the Baroque era

Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Common features of Baroque architecture included gigantism of proportions; a large open central space where everyone could see the altar; twisting columns, theatrical effects, including light coming from a cupola above; dramatic interior effects created with bronze and gilding; clusters of sculpted angels and other figures high overhead; and an extensive use of trompe-l'oeil, also called "quadratura," with painted architectural details and figures on the walls and ceiling, to increase the dramatic and theatrical effect.

Keystone (architecture)

A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry arch, or the generally round one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch or vault to bear weight. In both arches and vaults, keystones are often enlarged beyond the structural requirements, and often decorated in some way. Keystones are often placed in the centre of the flat top of openings such as doors and windows, essentially for decorative effect.

Latticework

Latticework is an openwork framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a grid or weave. Latticework may be functional – for example, to allow airflow to or through an area; structural, as a truss in a lattice girder; used to add privacy, as through a lattice screen; purely decorative; or some combination of these.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Galindo, Carmen; Magdelena Galindo (2002). Mexico City Historic Center. Mexico City: Ediciones Nueva Guia. p. 76. ISBN   968-5437-29-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "El claustro del ex convento de La Merced, el más bello de la Nueva España (Distrito Federal)". Mexico Desconocido. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  3. 1 2 Barranco Chavarría, Alberto. "La Merced: Siglos de Comerico". Ciudadanos en Red. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ciudad de Mexico Ex convento de la Merced" . Retrieved 2009-04-12.


Coordinates: 19°25′46.14″N99°7′40.21″W / 19.4294833°N 99.1278361°W / 19.4294833; -99.1278361

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

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