The take over of the northern highlands around present-day Quito by the conquistadors was for the Spanish partly a matter of lucky timing. Only a few decades before the first Spaniards landed on the coast in 1526 many of the tribes of the area had been forced into the Inca Empire. At that time the far-flung empire itself was engaged in civil war as a result of rivalry between the two half-brothers, Atahualpa and Huascar, respective leaders of the northern and southern territories. The Spanish exploited divisions among the Incas, murdered Atahualpa and won the support of the newly conquered tribes, who had no loyalty to their recently acquired Inca masters. In addition, Spanish firearms and cannons gave the “bearded white strangers” huge superiority in battle.

In 1534, Sebastian de Benalcazar, a lieutenant of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marched from the south up the spine of the Andes towards Quito. Near Riobamba, he and his cohorts met a huge Incan army, the largest Inca force ever gathered against the Spanish, which they managed to evade under the cover of night. Continuing north, the Spaniards gathered local tribespeople into their ranks and entered Quito in early December. They skirmished with the Inca general, Ruminahui [Face of Stone] who, realizing he was going to be defeated, burned down the Inca palace rather than leave it intact for the Spanish. On December 6, the Villa de San Francisco de Quito was officially founded on the ashes of the Inca town. Ruminahui was captured, tortured and executed.

Though they retained the name Quito, which is derived from the Quitus, one of the tribes in the area, the Spanish lost no time in creating a new city in their own image. On the foundations of Inca houses they built their own churches and convents, monasteries and mansions, using Inca stones from the rubble for the floors and facades. Construction of the magnificent Church of San Francisco began within weeks of the Spanish takeover, making it the oldest church in South America. In the traditional Spanish way, they built streets radiating from a main square in the center of the city, and they divided the city into 200 lots, one for each conquistador.

In order to embellish their grandiose buildings the Franciscans soon established the Quito School of Art, the first of its kind in South America. Local artists and craftsmen learned to make exquisite wooden polychrome sculptures and paintings, many of them characterized by savage Christian themes of martyrdom and mutilation. Quito's churches and museums contain a wealth of beautiful but gruesome renditions of Christ on the cross, and scenes of diabolical tortures that are part of a religious art movement that flourished throughout the Spanish colonial period. At the end of the sixteenth century Quito became the seat of the royal Audencia, a governmental court , and was known as the “Cloister of America” because of the collection of religious edifices that occupied a quarter of the Old City. In one square kilometer in the center of Old Quito there are 17 major Christian places of worship, while there are an estimated 86 churches in the whole city.

In 1978 UNESCO designated Old Quito as a World Heritage Site in recognition of the importance of its old colonial center. Development in the historic area became more strictly controlled, and a number of conservation projects were undertaken. There is still much to be done. Much of the Old City suffers from deterioration, pollution, overcrowding, overuse and lack of sanitation and maintenance. From dawn to dusk, the city center is an overcrowded corridor for transporting people and products between south and north. Leaded fuel turns the place into a veritable gas chamber, affecting everyone and everything.

Don't let such strong words put you off. Tourism is on the rise, and pickpockets seem to be on the decline. Although the Old City has problems, its colonial architecture matches its splendid Andean setting like a jeweled pendant hanging from a magnificent mountain chain. The jewel might need some polishing, but tourists would do well to see the Old City of Quito as more than a mere staging-post on the way to the Galapagos Islands.

|Article contributed by Dominic Hamilton|||

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