The Church of San Francisco in the City of Mexico belongs to the com mencement of the eighteenth century, since it was dedicated in 1716. Though deprived of all its glories, its tower demolished, its main entrance closed by a row of houses, and its interior robbed of its once rich adorn ments, it is still one of the most noble and imposing buildings in the city. It consists of a single great nave, 56 feet wide and 230 feet long, with an apse and transepts, and is lighted by a range of windows between the cor nice and the springing of the roof, and by three domes. The present entrance is from the side, through a chapel, and by a Churrigueresque, but not overloaded, doorway.
Nnestra Senora de Guadalupe, near Mexico, was completed in 1709, and has a vaulted roof resting on two rows of Corinthian columns.
The Sagrario Net/Val/ono, city of Mexico, is a work of the middle of the eighteenth century, but in its rich Churrigueresque façade does not bear much resemblance to the unadorned style current at the same time in England and in the United States. Like many other Mexican churches, it underwent important repairs after the earthquake of 1845. In plan it is a Greek cross.
The Cathedral of Leon was also begun about the middle of the eigh teenth century, but is scarcely yet completed. It has no aisles, but consists chiefly of a nave, modelled after Spanish examples, zzo feet long by 45 feet in width. This church was once that of La Compaiiia that is, of the Jesuits or Society of Jesuits. At Guanajuato is another fine church finished by the same order in 1765, and occupied by them only two years, since they were banished in 1767.
II "orks (?f Tolsa. —Toward the end of the eighteenth century the name of Tolsa is prominent among those of Mexican architects. One of his works is Nnestra Senora of Loreto, which has a peculiar plan, four rotundas being substituted for the minor arms of the Latin eross, while above their cir cular walls and above the main arches of the nave rises a superb dome, considered the finest in the capital. Tolsa also executed the high altar and tabernacle in Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe and that in Puebla Cathe dral, both magnificent and costly structures.
San Teresa la Anlz;rua, notwithstanding its name (Old St. Teresa), is in great part a modern church, since the dome, vaulted roof; and apse were destroyed by the earthquakes which visited Mexico in the middle of the present century, and were rebuilt previous to 1858. The shape and proportions of the original dome of Antonio Velasquez are preserved, as are the original arches and Corinthian columns.
Public Palacio Nacional is at once the largest and one of the least attractive edifices of the capital. Commenced in 1692, it has received additions at various periods, and now occupies one whole side of the Plaza Mayor, a façade of 675 feet. The national museum is housed in
that portion of the national palace which was formerly the mint, and its courtyard gives evidence of the different periods at which it was built. One side has two series of round-arched openings below, surmounted by two of rectangular windows; while another, at right angles with it, con sists of three broad unadorned round arches surmounted by a sort of loggia formed of bracket-capped posts bearing a cornice, the whole having an effect not unlike that of sonic " old-colonial " structures.
The Ayuulamieulo, or city-hall, was built between 172o and 1724, and is certainly superior to any city-hall of the eighteenth century to be found in the United States, though its details are none of the purest. There is a screen of flat pilasters in the upper floor, but in the lower the pilasters merge into piers which divide from one another a fine series of segmental arches forming an extensive portico. The pavilions at the ends, though not handsome in themselves, give by their plainness an effect of solidity to the whole.
The Biblioteca Nacional, or national library, was once the Church of San Augustin, and is in many respects a noble building.
The Millen' a, or school of mining engineering, a work of Tolsa, is one of the structures of which the Mexicans are very proud; it was built 1797-1813. Too heavy for the swampy site, it settled so much that at one time its entire demolition was threatened, but judicious measures stayed the work of destruction in 183o, after many of the lines had become considerably curved by the settlement. The structure cost more than a million and a half of dollars, is imposing both in size and in treatment, and contains fine courts, galleries, and staircases, as well as one magnificent hall.
. The lliercados, or markets, are among the most characteristic structures of Mexico; spacious open halls with courts and fountains, they compare favorably with those of the United States. Mexico has some fine exam ples, and Leon and Toluca others.
The architecture of the present century for the most part follows Renaissance traditions. Gothic has made little headway, although a few attempts have been made to introduce it, as, for example, at San Miguel de Allende, where a new façade and a central tower in the Pointed style have been added by an Indian architect.
Mexican streets have what are called lortales, or ar cades, through which the sidewalks run. In the City of Mexico the chief fiortales are to be found in the Calles (streets) Tlapaleros, Refugio, and Viejo Coliseo, and in the Plaza San Domingo. The houses are two or three storeys high, and are often gayly painted. The present growth of the City of Mexico is toward the north-west, where are located the hand some suburbs of Santa Maria, Guerrero, etc.