On my first full morning in Mexico City (my second day in the country), I decided to wander out from my Airbnb in search of some coffee. I found some right down the street, but then decided to wander around a little bit with my hot coffee in hand, checking out the local streets. Technically speaking, I was staying in Cuauhtémoc, so what you’re seeing above is on Calle Republica de Bolivia, just a few blocks from my place near the Plaza de Santo Domingo. It might just be a regular apartment building on top of the ground floor retail stores (as you can see in a second picture below), but look at the architectural details on this building!
This is the same building as the picture at the top of the page, I was just around the corner in that first shot with more exposure to the warm sunlight, giving it the stronger warm hues. Let’s zoom in and look at some of the details from the top level of this building (see below) … can you imagine having the top floor apartment and being able to come out on this little balcony and seeing these hooded figures standing guard on either side of your window? And the elaborate carvings over the rounded arch and demilune-shaped window, with the baby-like big face in the middle … how cool is this? I wish I could pinpoint the style – does one call this style Baroque?
I did one more detail isolation on the top area of this building, which includes the sculptural presence at the corner, which you can see on the left edge in the photo below. Doing an image search with this details prompted a response suggesting “Spanish Colonial Architecture,” but again, I’m not sure what I’m looking at here, from a scholarly point of view. But I love it!
