3.1 Architecture (Arquitectura)

Machu Picchu, high in the Andes above the Urubamba River in Peru, was built around the mid-1400s as an estate of the Inca ruler Pachacútec. Inca builders cut stones so precisely that they fit together without mortar, which helped the walls survive earthquakes, and they carved farming terraces (los andenes) into the mountainsides. The Spanish conquerors apparently never found it. Hiram Bingham brought it to world attention in 1911, guided by local farmers who already knew it, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Other cities show how advanced pre-Hispanic architecture was: the Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala, the pyramids of Chichén Itzá in Mexico, and Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital built on an island in Lake Texcoco. The ruins of its main temple, the Templo Mayor, sit next to Mexico City's cathedral today.

Muslim rulers governed parts of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492. The Great Mosque of Córdoba (la Mezquita), begun in 785, is famous for its forest of columns topped by red-and-white striped double arches; in the 16th century a cathedral was built in its center. The Alhambra in Granada is the palace-fortress of the Nasrid dynasty, built mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries, with carved plaster, tile mosaics, Arabic inscriptions and patios with fountains, like the Patio de los Leones.

Islamic religious art generally avoids images of people, so decoration relies on geometric patterns, plant designs (arabescos) and calligraphy. Mudéjar style is Islamic-style craftsmanship used in buildings made under Christian rule.

Spanish towns in the Americas were usually laid out in a grid (la cuadrícula) around a central square, called la plaza mayor or la plaza de armas. The cathedral or main church, the town council (el cabildo) and government buildings faced it. King Philip II's ordinances of 1573 set rules for founding towns this way.

Many colonial cities were built on top of Indigenous ones, a clear statement of conquest. In Cusco, the convent of Santo Domingo stands on the walls of the Inca temple Qorikancha, and Mexico City's main square, el Zócalo, sits over the center of Tenochtitlan. Today colonial centers such as Cartagena de Indias and Antigua Guatemala draw tourists, which brings income but also raises rents for residents.

Antoni Gaudí was the star of Catalan modernisme (el modernismo catalán), an architectural movement in Barcelona from about the 1880s to the 1910s. His buildings, like Casa Batlló, Casa Milà and Park Güell, use curves inspired by nature and mosaics of broken tiles (el trencadís). Work on the Sagrada Família began in 1882; Gaudí led it from 1883 until his death in 1926, and it is still being built, paid for by donations and tickets.

The Mexican architect Luis Barragán won the Pritzker Prize, architecture's top award, in 1980. His buildings combine plain walls in bold colors like pink and yellow with light, water and quiet gardens; his house and studio in Mexico City became a UNESCO site in 2004. In Spain, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) helped transform an industrial city, and people now speak of el efecto Guggenheim: one landmark building reviving a city's economy.

• la cúpula (dome), el arco (arch), la columna (column)
• la fachada (front of a building), la torre (tower), la muralla (city wall)
• el azulejo (glazed tile), el patio (courtyard), el rascacielos (skyscraper)
• el patrimonio mundial (World Heritage)