Pieces to the Puzzle: How the Castillo and Mother Church Work Urbanistically

Pieces to the Puzzle: How the Castillo and Mother Church Work Urbanistically

Pieces to the Puzzle: How the Castillo and Mother Church Work Urbanistically

The role of the city is to be the center of economic, political, and cultural movement. Cities have a dense population compared to the area, so careful planning must go into its development. In the U.S. alone, 55% of the population lives in cities with more than 1,000,000 people, 78% in cities with more than 100,000, and less that 3% live in agricultural areas (Angotti, Tomas. 1993). Since it is so crucial for a city with countless numbers of inhabitants to work properly, there has to be certain building types to facilitate the lives of the people. One of the most important building types is the temple. Temples through out time usually work very similarly urbanistically in the sense that they are centers of religious practice and located in key areas. A temple is a symbol of the culture; it represents the people’s beliefs and how devoted they are to them. Temples have usually been elaborate and large scale; examples of this include the Temple of Kukulkбn in Chichйn Itzб, Mexico, and the Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts. The Temple of Kukulkбn and the Mother Church in Boston are strikingly similar in many ways, including architecturally and how they are used by the people of the city.

Chichйn Itzб was once one of the most powerful kingdoms of pre-Columbian America. In the time between the end of the Classic and beginning of Post-Classic period of Mayan history, around 800c.e. to 1100c.e, it was an important city for local politics, religion, and trade and was crucial to the Mesoamerican social structure. Since this city was so constantly populated, it had to be intricately designed. In order for this complex city to work, careful planning and organization had to go into the urban development in order to make this culturally diverse society.

The history of Chichйn Itzб is quite unique when compared to other Mayan cities.

Its architectural influences come from two different sources. Chichйn Itzб began in the Middle to Late Classic period when some of its Puuc and early Maya structures were built. The Puuc architectural style came from the hilly region west of Chichйn Itzб, and consisted of buildings with different proportions and construction than the future buildings in the north of Chichйn Itzб. Puuc buildings have rubble-filled concrete walls faced by a thin veneer of dressed stone. The exterior walls have plain lower facades supporting upper facades decorated with religious masks and geometric designs. Constructed of individually carved pieces fitted together to form a design, Puuc sculpture resembles a mosaic. The low relief stone and wood sculptured door lintels and columns resemble human figures. While older structures of southern Chichйn Itzб were of Puuc influence, the later built buildings of the north were