Persistence of religious alarifes in the province of Guatemala in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

In Guatemala, at the beginning of the Colonial Era there was a lack of specialist builders called “alarifes”, architects and master builders for the construction of religious and civil works in the European tradition, why religious mainly of scheduled orders, were charge of leading indigenous to build temples and other buildings necessary to Christian worship. With the passage of time, the share of these religious is reduced by increasing the number of civilian builders; however the historical method applied mainly to official documents of architecture and curates showed, for the eighteenth century, the presence of religious in charge of works temples in villages in the province of Guatemala.