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Urban Evolution of Colonial Quito In almost three centuries of the Spanish Colonization Period, close to one thousand cities were founded in the Americas. These new towns were built in accordance to several legislative documents that were given by the Spanish Crown to regulate, among many other aspects in the American Colonies, the creation of new settlements. In order to assure a long lasting presence of the Spanish Crown, the command given to the Conquistadors was that the settlements were to be permanent so they could have a strategic role in the discovery, conquest and administration of the new world. Quito is one of the cities founded by the Spanish. It was located 2800 meters above sea level in a territory previously occupied by an indigenous population. One of the advantages this place offered was that, due to the complicated topography of creeks and mountains, it had favorable conditions for defending the city against a possible uprising of the aboriginal inhabitants.〔 == Foundation == It is not certain if Quito had a foundational plan as it was recommended by the Spanish Crown for every new settlement. However, its founders surely followed and adapted the instructions to the complicated terrain where they settled. All works had to start by the establishment of the Main Plaza and then extend the square grid and the streets so they would connect to gates and main roads leaving enough space for the growth of a future population.〔 The regularity of the Damero, as the square Spanish Grid was called, was broken by the creeks and elevations existing in this site. The blocks had to be made smaller and many of them rectangular when cut by a creek. Despite the efforts of the settlers to adapt this system to the site, many of the streets and allotments turned out having a very steep slope. This characteristic became one of the peculiarities of this Historical Center. There is no clear consensus over the shape of the original allotments since the first plan that included this information was only published by 1887 by Gualberto Pérez, over three hundred years after the foundation. However, some studies suggest that every block was divided in eight allotments of 55 by 110 foot and that there were around three hundred houses in the city. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Urban evolution of colonial Quito」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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