The Project of a Viceroy’s Palace for Mexico by the First American Architect to have Graduated in Spain

Abstract

This study aims to analyze one of the few attempts at training American professionals in Spanish academies during the Colonial period. Despite the existence of the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City, the crown’s centralized power that projects required to be carried out on American territory be approved by the Royal academy of San Fernando in Madrid before authorizing their construction. The role of the Mexican Francisco de Paula de la Vega y Pérez, who graduated in architecture in Madrid, is thus unique in the context of artistic relations between Spain and its colonies. The final project he presented for a Viceroy’s palace in Mexico makes reference to eighteenth-century models of royal palaces. At the time of the French invasion he was working in Ciudad Rodrigo and chose to remain in Spain.