public hall in the last-named town, there has been erected, of late, a rather severe arch which recalls that at the foot of Fifth Avenue, New York, likewise reminding the beholder of the pseudo-classic Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile at Paris. But this arch is an anomaly in Colima, where, all along one side of the plaza, there is an arcade which is redolent of mediaeval Spain, portales being the name which the Mexicans themselves give to the picturesque archways supporting structures of this description. Scarcely more salient at Colima than at Oaxaca and Cholula, these portales form the very key-note, so to speak, in the majority of Mexican cities, the thing chiefly impressing itself on the visitor's memory, so far as the visible is concerned; while another thing which he or she is bound to remember is the bright colour garnishing the façades of countless houses.
To turn from domestic to ecclesiastical architecture, a remarkable illustration of this order is to be seen at Puebla, in the beautiful Cepillo del Rosario;[1] for the interior of this church was completely redecorated so recently as the end of the nineteenth century, the additions withal being wholly in keeping with the venerable edifice containing them. And a great deal of equally tasteful rehabilitation of churches has been done, during the last few years, at Vera Cruz; while a church built as lately as 1908, in the Calle de Orizaba, harmonises most perfectly with all the old edifices in the immediate vicinity, the design in this instance having come from Cessare Novi, one of the best known and cleverest of contemporary Mexican architects. Again, the rare little Capello de San Antonio, in the environs of Mexico city, a church which formed the subject of one of Miss Florence Wester's many engaging contributions to Modern Mexico, dates only from late in last century, yet looks almost as if it had been erected in the days of Cortés; while, although that<references>
- ↑ Some excellent photographs of this church, showing the modern additions, will be found in a book by Antonio Cortés, La Arquitectura en Mexico, published by the Museo Nacional, Mexico City, 1914.
