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In Mock Battle between
the allied Spaniards and Otomie Indians against
Chichimecas, on 25th July, 1531, on Sangremal Hill, the
apostle Santiago appeared, from a flash of light in the
sky, mounted on white horse declaring Spanish victory and
the founding of the city. Thus Santiago de Queretaro was
born.
Walking these streets is like leafing through history
book. One can take in the inimitable 18th century baroque
spirit with all five senses, feeling the delicious
sensuality of the golden skinned wooden alter pieces, and
the carved stone of the facades, which scrolls and other
ornamentation seen to break away and take flight into the
sky, a human offering to the divine through this song of
praise.
New Hispanic Cultural and Political Center, baroque in its
buildings but not in its serene layout of straight streets
and formal well defined plazas. Its fervent spirit comes
from the stately homes, aromatic fountains, theatres,
churches and aqueduct.
The complexity of the balconies, niches, doorways,
gargoyles and wrought iron details, expresses in the
ornamentation that flame of Franciscan passion that
created here, before any place else in America, apostolic
school to spread the faith and train missionaries to
evangelize far away lands.
Inside the churches, gold covered alter pieces, with
ornamental whims, were a means of expressing the faith
that converted the golden forms into Christian prayers of
uncontainable fervor.
As the aura of 18th century waned, with new century and
new ideas, baroque ecstasy was transformed into
neoclassical heaven: The curvilinear sensuality extended
itself in straight line and the "Golden
Firewood" of alter pieces burned to feed the linear
purity of 19th century. Other poems were constructed upon
this amalgamated city of poetry and stone, giving it caress like
atmosphere.
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