La Merced church
 One
enters the Basilica of La Merced through the square of the same name.
And from this side one has the best view of the church: the great
white wall above the stone atrium, the solid quadrangular tower with a
hint of arabic styling in the upper part, the central dome, with all
its grace and the four lesser domes which go together to make a highly
unusual and extremely beautiful combination.
The entrance door has a peculiar stone frame:
pillars with a series of niches carved in them, carved bearded heads
and the sun and the moon above the lintel, those two heavenly, bodies
so beloved of the Indians who quarried the stone. The original church
on this site was largely destroyed in the earthquake of 1660, and the
foundations of the present building were not laid until 1701. .
The tower was completed in 1736, and the church
was dedicated in 1747. Bernardo de Legarda was commissioned to do
the main altarpiece, in 1751. The tribunes of the presbytery and the four
evangelists, on the arches of the dome are by, Maestro Uriaco. The
central niche of the high altar is occupied by the Virgin of Mercy, to
whom Sucre dedicated his victorious sword after the Battle of
Pichincha. The statue is life-size, and of painted stone. It was
carried in procession during the eruptions of Pichincha volcano. |
|
 There are paintings Jrom various times in the
church by Samaniego, the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis, by
Pinto, and a number of paintings by Victor Mideros. The main cloister of La Merced church is one of the most attractive in
Quito, with pillars of stone and dazzling white archways, as well as a
wide stone paxtio that has a magnificent carved stone fountain in the
center, with a figure of Neptune. There are corner-pieces painted in
the corridors of the cloister. In the upper cloister there is a series
of paintings depicting the life of St. Francis Xavier, believed to
have been painted by the great Jesuit master, Brother Hernando de la
Cruz.
From the cloister, one can go into the library,
which is one of the most beautiful in the New World, with its two
floors and walls covered with ancient books bound in parchment or with
their spines covered in gold. The Museum is to
be found in the second cloister, together with the cell of the prior,
decorated, apparently, by Manuel Samaniego. There are also paintings
by Miguel de Santiago, Nicolás Gorábar, Bernardo Rodríguez and Manuel
Samaniego, as well as a large number of curious jewels.
|
