Page 307 - Perú indígena y virreinal

of that great tidal wave (super unda) that had destroyed the port. On the 16th of March, the king sent a new “Town Plan and Warehouses of Bellavista”—pentagonal in form and criss-crossed with regular, rectangular blocks. Godin laid out this plan slightly inland, having finished “the levelling and study of what waters are to be necessary for the proposed canal, in order that goods may be transported from sea to warehouse and from warehouse to sea”, using the area’s puquios, or lagoons.
The role of Judge don Pablo de Olavide in this crucial period is well documented in the archives from the period, reflecting in part his concerns for society as a whole, as can be seen in the way he took charge of a section of the city on the orders of the Viceroy, being responsible for raising funds for repairs to the Royal Hospital of Santa Ana, used by the sick and infirm from the local indigenous population. Under Carlos III and the minister Aranda, his exploits would be rewarded, given the role of Superintendent in charge of the ambitious new project The New Settlements of the Sierra Morena and Andalusia, a scheme that also had great repercussions back in the Americas.
Upon the ruins of Callao the Viceroy Count Superunda planned the Royal Felipe Fort, built by his successor Viceroy Manuel de Amat. During his Viceroyalty (1761–1776) more of Carlos III programmes were carried out, such as a greater secularisation of public life and the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the wealth of whom was used to fund new projects and institutions worthy of the Age of Enlightenment. During this period, a new kind of building was emerging, typified by the permanent bullring at Acho and an arena for cock fighting in front of Saint Catherine’s church, where a Barrio Nuevo or new town sprung up with a theatre, a gunpowder store in Barbones within the city wall and a network of roads and paths on the far bank of the river.
AMATS’S INVENTION: THE “WATER WALK” Viceroy Amat, in his Memoirs, recalled that
After a short time in Government, I became familiar with the public promenade known as La Alameda, whose fountains were in ruins and whose Trees were without any of the greenery that offers so much pleasure and amusement. Places such as these are maintained in all political Cities for the relief of one’s humour that at such a moment seeks rest and thus, at once, I decided to make good such disorder by laying currents (of water) to its Fountains, replanting Trees and setting out seats and paths for the vulgar people (a Latinism meaning here “common people”) so that they might not be run over by the many coaches and cabriolets that pass by on festive days. I fancied to extend the parade, to make it longer and place there Water displays in imitation of those at Rome. Achieving such perfection would make this one of the most beauteous Pastimes that any City might possess, it being my desire to express to Your Excellence that it has been my wish to adorn this Republic in as many ways as has been possible, thus giving it the splendour it so deserves.
Amat’s reign ending unexpectedly, his “Water Walk” remained unfinished, covered in scaffolding, as can be seen in a document from the Catalonian Library (manuscript 400 no. 123), signed by “Julio [Ramon de] Cesar” and entitled “La Nabona.”
One entered via a ramp, accompanied on the right by a waterfall that emerged from between two canals, as shown in a painting by Fernando Brambillo, a member of the Malaspina expedition. Behind the piece of land acquired and rebuilt by Micaela Villegas, La Perricholi after the end of Viceroy Amat’s rule, a vantage point and viewing area were added in 1782, as well as “the top piece of the Alameda Windmill” according to documents pertaining to the city’s procurator.
The ramp was flanked on either side with wall crowned with turrets and open oculi, or round windows, between it cornices, whilst at each corner there was a pyramid. The two individual pillars to be seen on the right marked the entrance to the old entrance to the Alameda Avenue that ran perpendicular to the water walk at this point. One of these pillars was swallowed up by extension to what used to be the Backus Brewery, although the original pyramid could still be seen until recently on one its walls.
At the end of the Water Walk were six arches, also topped with turrets and oculi that ran either side of a “water show” (in other words, a wall where water was allowed to run down steep gradients) in the style of the “Fontanone” Paola in Rome, a city that Amat had visited. We believe that when the Viceroy wrote “place there Water displays in imitation of those at Rome”, he was referring to this “Fontanone” that adjoined Saint Peter’s Church
in Montorio, a possession of the Spanish crown in Rome, and not the Plaza Navona that has three separate fountains, in spite of the fact that Julio Ramon de Cesar called it the “La Nabona”, possibly due to its length.
The arches and stone walls that can still be seen towards the end of the avenue form part of Amat’s project to construct an aqueduct to ensure that the water from Piedra Lisa didn’t flow at ground level, as before, but from the heights of the aforementioned walls. The cost, an eternal source of conflict with the rulers, and, we understand technical problems relating to the inclination of the water channel meant that this scheme never came to fruition.
Amat took a personal interest in all his projects, including those he ordered to be built back home in Spain, as documents in Catalonia will testify. On studying them in 2002 we found that on the underside of a piece of paper that had been gummed down (no. 128: “Plan for walls or fortifications, no place, no date”) a sketch of the terrain for his Water Walk before work began, with the limits to the walk marked as being the Piedra Lisa canal and a bridge, lateral to an arch he planned to build, known as Calle de Otero.
We were also able to identify a perspective of the walls of this plot of land, which is still half-standing today at the point where the Alameda Avenue joined the future Walk, before Micaela Villegas, La Perricholi, acquired this land. It shows buttresses and signs of a doorway with a wall, under three vaulted ceilings, called peines or combs, where water would flow.
Other proposals for the Water Walk that were rejected can still be found in the Catalonian Library. In all these plans, that we shall call A, B and C, we belief that the unmistakeable stamp of the Viceroy Architect and his impeccable taste can clearly be seen.
Proposal A (no. 124: “Project II, no place, no date”) in perspective, shows in its lower right-hand part, a corner with the same feature as the half-intact, half ruined plot of land mentioned previously, the starting point for the Walk with a figure on horseback in the distance, presumably that of Carlos III, flanked by three fountains, each with three water spouts. A double line of trees runs down either side of the walk, on the right is the canal with its refurbished bridge. Two feline figures seated on pedestals guard the entrance; on the right is a lion holding a wand capped with an eight-pointed star, while on the left, a feline with small ears and short hair, a puma perhaps, holds a lime, in allusion to the city’s name (Lima is the Spanish word for “lime”).
Another document (no. 77: “Project I, no place, no date”), showing a ground plan, although with the rectangle slightly curved, can also be associated with Proposal A.
Proposal B (no. 126: “Project III, no place, no date”), in perspective, shows a similar Walk, with the same double line of trees on the left-hand side, canal and bridge on the right, although on this occasion, the three fountains are situated in front of the equestrian figure and at the entrance there is an obelisk on the left with a fountain at its base, whilst on the right there is a column adorned with similar fruit to Proposal A, again, probably limes.
In another document (no. 122: “Plan for a fortification, no place, no date”) shows an alternative ground plan, Proposal C. This colour drawing, with measurements and offering commentaries on the terrain and existing buildings, is different to the previous plans. The walk measures 262 ? varas (roughly 250 yards) with an entrance measuring 16 varas. The width of the avenue varies, due to the terrain (48 ?, 45 and 84 varas). The walk ends in a half crescent, with a central motif, marked on the plan and flanked by two passages, the one on the right corresponding to the previously mentioned arched bridge.
These proposals resolve the issue of the need to reach the diagonal street (Otero), which can be seen on the right of the drawings, in order to get to the first street off to the left, the Lurigancho Road that ran “between two waters”—the canal and the River Rimac. There was also a desire to unite, via the Water Walk, the two “Alamedas”: the Alameda de los Descalzos (restored by Amat) and the Alameda de Acho and the bullring that had been built there.
PROJECTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS AT THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY.
Other works caught the eye of the Viceroy: the Temple of the Nazarenes, the Chapel of the Virgin of Mercy and the tower and other sections of Santo Domingo Church. Various characteristics bring together these examples of rococo or late classic baroque taste: stepped or broken up facades, that can also be seen between the main body and the lateral parts of the Water Walk, oculi or round windows, the final steps leading up to the Virgin of Mercy chapel which closely resemble his house in Barcelona and maybe his
[ 314 ] ENGLISH TEXTS