**4. The Mestizo Baroque Style**

From 1690 on, certain original traits, unlike European models, manifested in baroque architecture in Charcas. Some historians call this style "mestizo baroque" or "Andean baroque" (Angulo Iñíguez et al. 1945; Buschiazzo 1961). Its dates range between 1690 and 1780, and it is found in the strip of land between Arequipa (Peru) and Lake Titicaca (Bolivia). The altitude of this strip exceeds 3600 m above sea level. Most of its population is Aymara (Gisbert and Mesa 2012).

The distinguishing features of the mestizo baroque style are the peculiar decoration of European structural forms, with a total disregard for the blueprint (and style) of the building, the use of archaic and flat forms, and the *horror vacui* (Gisbert and Mesa 1997).

The decoration is varied. Its motifs may be grouped into the following themes: American tropical flora and fauna, themes of mannerist origin such as mermaids, masks and grotesques, pre-Columbian and tropical motifs such as monkeys and pumas, and elements of the preRenaissance Christian tradition. It is mostly symbolic architecture (Gisbert and Mesa 2012).

## **5. Our Lady of the Angels Temple in the City of La Paz**

*5.1. Construction History*

From August 1549, the date of the last foundation of the Convent of San Francisco in Cuzco, until 1607, the Convent of Our Lady of La Paz belonged to the Province of the XII Apostles of Peru. On the latter date, the Convent of La Paz became part of the Province of Saint Anthony of Charcas, which included what today is the Plurinational State of Bolivia and the departments of Arequipa, Puno, and Cuzco, and all the doctrines and convents under their custody (Cajías de la Vega 2009; Cuadrado Sánchez 1991; García Ros 2000).

According to chronicler Diego de Mendoza, the Convent of Saint Francis in the city of La Paz was founded with the name of "Our Lady of the Angels" by Friar Francisco de los Ángeles Morales, one of the first twelve friars in the territory. Chronicler Diego de Mendoza textually points out that:

*(he) founded it the year of one thousand and five hundred and forty-nine, and it was the first religious convent, which was founded there in the same year, in the same city of La Paz, [it] has ordinarily from fifteen to sixteen religious priests and laymen, two priests for the Indians, one for the Doctrine of Saint Peter that is outside the city, and another in the convent, which the Yanacona Indians of the Convent administrate, by special decrees of Don Francisco de Toledo, and other viceroys; it is an annexe of Saint Peter*. (Mendoza [1664] 1976, p. 48)

The first stone of the construction of the convent was laid on 2 August 1549, the feast of the Portiuncula of Our Lady of the Angels, and, according to chronicler Diego de Mendoza, in 1556, the construction of the temple and the main altarpiece started with enthusiasm—and, at the same time, with calm. The main altarpiece was made by the master Francisco Jiménez Vargas who, in 1582, with Francisco Tito Yupanqui, gilded the image of Our Lady of the Candle. This altarpiece is currently in the church of Ancoraimes in the Department of La Paz. Regarding the temple, the aforementioned chronicler reports:

*the site is the healthiest in the city, on the banks of the river, with a beautiful bridge of lime and stone, which the Convent built for the passage and communication into town, as it is removed from the sun. Its fabrication is plain, without art, comfortably poor for the religious dwelling of its inhabitants, with two uncovered cloisters with only one room, for protection from water. The church is plain, in the ancient fashion (the description is from 1665 and it refers to the classical Greek-Roman style), with a carved wooden roof and two collateral chapels, the choir by the convent does not have more than two ascending steps and is high on the side of the church, as it falls into a precipice, like the other buildings of the town. The masonry is all cedar wood moderately carved*. (Mendoza [1664] 1976, p. 575)

This construction was not very solid and collapsed, due to heavy snowfall, in 1612. Immediately, Don Diego de Portugal, who was Corregidor of La Paz and Tertiary Brother (*Hermano Terciario*), began its reconstruction. Such was the commitment of this devotee, that one day, while he was working, he was told by the friars to go rest at his house, to which Don Diego replied, according to the Chronicles of Diego de Mendoza: "I will

not admit God to be without a home, while I am resting in mine; first the house of God must be finished" (Mendoza [1664] 1976, p. 575). This second temple remained standing until multiple factors—like population growth, changes in the stylistic fashion of the time, evangelizing needs, and the desire of the friars to offer God the best they could—demanded the construction of a new and monumental building, which is the one standing nowadays (Romero 1976).

Undoubtedly, the growth of the city and of its pastoral needs required building a new temple, the third one. The beginning of its work dates from 1743 or 1744, when Fray Alejo Bolaños was the Guardian of the Convent, " ... following the donation of BOP 600,000 from the miner Don Diego Baena y Antípara" (Buschiazzo 1949, p. 65). Other donations were added until the sum of BOP 1,200,000 was reached, which is what it cost. The temple was completed in 1772, and its tower in 1889 (Buschiazzo 1949).

From the dates on the dome and in the keys of the vault, it is possible to determine that the dome of the transept was completed in 1753, and the vaults of the naves in 1772.

Written on the dome is: "Se aca/vo es/ta me/dia/nara/nja/año de/1753", which reads as "this half dome was finished in the year 1753". In the vault above the choir, it says: "Se cero est/a Yglecia sie/ndo Gn E. R. P. F./Xtobal de Ri/bas Lr. Jo. A 27 de o/ctubre Año de 1772", which means "this church was closed when Gn. E.R.P.F. Xtobal de Ribas Lr. Jo. on 27 October 1772" (Figure 2).

**Figure 2.** Inscription on the choir. Photography: Josefina Matas, 2022.

In 1781, indigenous commander Tupac Katari (Julian Apaza) and his troops led a siege to the city of La Paz; the building was set on fire and both the temple and the convent were looted (Figure 3).

Three years after the siege, the Bishop of La Paz Monsignor Gregorio Francisco Campos consecrated the building. In a painting of the sacristy, there is a testimony of this event:

*A true portrait of the II H.D.D. Gregorio Francisco de Campos, the most dignified Bishop of La Paz and special benefactor of the Seraphic Religion, to whose devotion is due to the conclusion of this Church, which was consecrated on 23 April 1784*. (Rossi 2003, p. 30)

The "very anti-aesthetic" tower (Figure 4), according to Buschiazzo, was the work of Brother Eulalio Morales. Its construction was possible with the donation of BOB 60,000 from Mr and Mrs Penny. Mario Buschiazzo (1949) dates 1885 as the completion of the tower. It should be noted that the latest documents found in the Franciscan Archive of La Paz are from 1898.

**Figure 3.** Painting by Florentino Olivares in the Museo Casa Murillo, showing the siege of La Paz by Tupac Katari in 1781.

**Figure 4.** View of the tower. Photography: Josefina Matas, 2023.

In the history of the temple, an event worth mentioning is its declaration as Major Basilica, granted by Pope Pius XII and celebrated, with all solemnity, on 3 August 1952. On 4 October 1959, in the liturgical feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Bishop Thomas Manning of Coroico blessed the foundation stone of the convent's new façade (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** View of the façade of San Francisco. Photography: Josefina Matas, 2023.

Some structural work was carried out in the Basilica and the convent in the 1980s, with the intention of turning them into a museum and an art gallery. The main altarpiece was cleaned, as well as the pulpit, the canvases, the medallions of the central nave, and the original building of the convent was rehabilitated. However, the largest and most appropriate intervention was undertaken between 1993 and 2005. The restoration and re-functionalization project was then completed, and the buildings look since then as they do today (Matas 2017, p. 185).

#### *5.2. Temple*

The temple is 58 m long, 26 m wide, and the width of the walls ranges from 2 to 3 m. It is of the basilica type, with three naves, a semicircular vault in the transept and a rectangular presbytery. The central nave is covered with a barrel vault, reinforced by transverse arches (*fajones*), and the lateral ones are reinforced by elliptical domes.

The construction entirely made of carved stone gives the effect of one being in a hieratic and sacred space, perhaps a Romanesque one. The low height of the side naves makes it possible for the temple to be illuminated by its windows, which generate large lunettes in the central canyon (cuts)4. These windows still have their alabasters preserved—the translucent stones that were used instead of glass and which filter a milky and soft light. The alabasters, in the current lighting of the temple, emphasize the choir and grant the nave a clear uniformity.

It is easy to imagine this space in the 18th century, without natural light and only illuminated by the light from windows and candles, with its resplendent altarpieces, granting the whole space the mestizo character which is a product of the Andean cosmovision (Matas (2017)—Figure 6).

The dome rests directly on the pendentives, without any drum interposition, so that the four windows open in the capstone, a "curious and constructively incorrect solution" (Buschiazzo 1949, p. 17). It is divided into eight uses, employing thick ribs which rise from the central rose window, ending in windows or anthropomorphic figures. Again, it is

Buschiazzo, quoting Harold Wethey (1949), who points out the Mudejar influence in the constructive solution of the dome of the building (Buschiazzo 1949).

**Figure 6.** The interior architecture of Our Lady of the Angels' Temple, in the city of La Paz—view of the nave and presbytery from the choir. Photography: Josefina Matas, 2022.
