Spanish Colonial Architecture

Spanish colonial architecture, also called Hispanic colonial architecture, is the building style Spain carried into its former colonies, still visible today in the architecture and city planning of many conserved historic towns across the Americas and beyond. In the Americas, the sixteenth century Laws of the Indies set out formal provisions for laying out new colonial settlements, a planning framework whose legacy survives in the historic centers of numerous cities now recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including towns in the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Venezuela. In the Philippines, Spanish colonial rule began with the Spaniards' arrival in 1571 and lasted until 1898, introducing European colonial building methods that produced structures such as the Paoay Church in Ilocos Sur, a notable example of the so called Earthquake Baroque style found only in the Philippines, engineered with massive buttressed walls to withstand seismic activity. The period also transformed Filipino domestic building, as the traditional nipa hut, or bahay kubo, gave way among the colonial elite to the bahay na bato, or stone house, built of brick and stone in a style that blended local and Spanish construction methods.