Postcards from Ecuador: Art, culture & religion in Quito's historical city center

Day 4 dawned robin's-egg blue in Quito, a perfect day for a walking tour of the historical city center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The day began with a stop at the Virgen de El Panecillo, also known as the Virgin of Quito. The sculpture is one of the few that depicts the Virgin Mary with wings, as she has descended from the heavens back to earth to fight evil on judgment day.

The statue is more than 125 feet high and sits atop the hill of Panecillo overlooking Quito, giving the group its first views of the glacier-clad peaks of Cotopaxi (19,300 feet) and Antisana (18,875 feet).

The group descended to the city center to begin its walking tour, with the first stop at the Church and Convent of San Francisco, followed by tours of the Church of la Compañía de Jesus - one of the most notable baroque cathedrals in South America - and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito, the center of diocese and site of two Papal visits.

After lunch in Plaza de la Independencia - celebrating Ecuador’s independence from Spain on May 24, 1822 - the group made its way uphill to the Basílica del Voto National, the largest of all of Quito‘s cathedrals and the largest neo-Gothic cathedral in South America, complete with non-traditional gargoyles featuring the animal life of Ecuador, from armadillos and tapirs to condors and flamingos.

The afternoon finished with a tour of the home, studio, and museum of famed Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín.

Guayasamín’s work often focused on the struggle of the Ecuadorian under classes, as he himself was a mixed indigenous Kichwa and Mestizo heritage who felt keenly the societal and racial rifts in Ecuadorian culture.

Not surprisingly, the evening conversation – a 60- to 90-minute daily wrap-up exercise overseen by Amy Carbajal and Scott Linneman - focused on the intersection of art, culture and religion in Ecuador.

Annabelle Carozza, a geology major from Bellevue, Nebraska, said the grandeur of the cathedrals must have been an effective recruiting tool for church, dating back to their construction in the 1600s. The church remains a central pillar of Ecuadorian society, as the country to this day is about 80% Catholic.

The art and iconography of the cathedrals and the Guayasamín museum linked the past and the present for pre-med and psychology major Ayla Bilyeu of Monroe.

“To me, the art of the churches links back to a time in Ecuador‘s history, while Guayasamín’s work brings that discussion to the present day and a different kind of struggle,” said Bilyeu.

 

See the photo gallery from the trip here.

Students sit in the pews of the Church of la Compañía de Jesús, one of the most notable baroque cathedrals in South America
Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamín’s Capilla del Hombre (Chapel of Man), which contains many of his artworks.
 Looking up at El Virgen de El Panecillo with blue skies in the background. The statue is more than 125 feet high and sits atop the hill of Panecillo overlooking Quito