South America » Ecuador
South America » Ecuador
Hotel Patio Andaluz Quito history - Monday, April 7, 2008
The House of the Hotel Patio Andaluz Quito was part of the ancestral site of the city of San Francisco de Quito at its foundation. It is located in the parish of Santa Bárbara, the most antique one, according to Padre Juan de Velascoâ??s narrations.
By the end of the 16th century it belonged to Marquis Juan Sánchez de Jerez an activist during the â??Alcabalaâ?? revolution. His successors, the Freire de Bohorquez family is mentioned in the narrations of the family of the Marquis of Selvalegre, Don Juan Pio Montufar.
The heritage of 1689 was a fundamental step for its stability, determining that the building could not be sold. Nevertheless due to some political and economic influence the merchant Jeronimo Urbasus managed to separate the house from the yard and own it until 1730.
Half a century later, the house belonged to the Donoso Bosmediano family, which had a very active role during the independence war. Already in the republican era, it passed on to Don Miguel Grijalva, who sold it in 1850 to PacÃfico Chiriboga Borja, a distinguished politician from another historical city â?? Riobamba â?? who held the position of the Minister of State and was member of the triumvirate - the government held jointly by Gabriel GarcÃa Moreno and Jeronimo Carrion from 1859 to 1861.
When he died in 1866, the house was inherited by his daughter Mercedes, married to Colonel Timoleon Tiburco Flores Jijon son of General Juan Jose Flores., The house was frequently visited by his brother, President Antonio Flores during his legislation period between 1888 and 1892.
From the third generation on and since 1923 the house was inherited by the brothers Flores Chiriboga, who sold the house to the national association of workers in July of 1924.
The association held the house for a long time under the leadership of its president the well known sociologist, educator and politician Dr Leonidas GarcÃa who had his office in the house. The historian Emilio Uzcátegui mentions the office several times in his memoirs.
Since then the house had many functions, The Yard Casino Andaluz Quito, the Billiard Club Quito, offices and residences of Quito citizens and immigrants from the provinces. Until the idea of the enterprise of the historical center became reality converting it into what nowadays is part of the hotel chain Colonial Cialcotel promoted and managed by BScEng Jose Luis Alvarez Burbano de Lara in the year 2003.
Apart from its rich history and all its traditions, there are the families: Larrea Jijon, Camaño and Freile. The nobles from the initial founding era hold off their social acts at the *house with the Spanish yard* as they called it and they also used it as a model for several other constructions at other places given its ample space and elegance�
Using the plans of the house of Patio Andaluz the houses of the Marquis of Villacis and Villaverde were constructed, being evidence of the importance this magnificent construction once had and still has nowadays for Quito`s architecture.
â??Ancestral seat, animated, discrete and elegantâ?? as Don Manuel Jijon y Barba mentions his transient residence in Quito in his letters to Paris.
â??Beautiful, charming and unpredictableâ?¦ in this house the most important events took place, the less expected in the most casual wayâ?¦as Don Cristobal Bonifaz y Jijonâ?¦*benefactor of the Charles Darwin Foundation in favor of the enchanted islands* mentions it in his cards written at his short stay as a guest of the house in Quito.
- Created:
- Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7:12 PM