ART & ARCHITECTURE IN CUENCA: BUILDING ORNAMENTATION

Cuenca is a city of art and artists. In some ways it reminds me of Florence, Italy, because of all the beautiful ornamentation on buildings. It is not unusual to see exquisite painting like this high up on the building, near the roof.


One day when roaming around Nancy and I discovered excellent "mochachinos" (cafe mocha) at the Baccus Cafe at Hotel Santa Lucia. And added bonus were these decorative tiles on the walls.
This is a particularly lovely door in downtown Cuenca; only one of many.

One evening we ducked into a roasted chicken place (these are ubiquitous in town) for a refresco and were delighted to see this exquisite floor. Can you picture anything like this at KFC?

I never tire of lovely tile work, whether on the floor in a utilitarian position or on the wall just because.


Yesterday Jim and I were walking along downtown, as usual, and spotted a lovely entry way that advertised European Antiques. The sign, in English, stated that if one wished to view the antiques, one should ring the bell three times. However, there was a pack of beagles bugling in the courtyard and this didn't encourage us to enter the place. I didn't need to see antiques anyway with this gorgeous wall treatment in the entryway.

And look what was on the ceiling!

We found another great ceiling treatment at the Modern Art Museum which is a fabulous building and grounds, never mind the excellent art. The building was owned formerly by the church and was used to get the drunk priests off the street (literally from out of the gutter). Subsequent to that time it was used as an orphanage. Now it is this wonderful museum which is FREE. More about the museum and exhibits will be forthcoming on other blogs. Meantime, this is the ceiling that we saw in the auditorium at the museum.

On my next blog I'll take you on a brief tour of some of the outstanding architecture in Cuenca, particularly on the older buildings and churches.

Hasta Luego,

Audrey