A Solomonic house in the city of Puebla

Abstract

The “Casa de las Bóvedas”, or “House of the vaults”, is a baroque structure built between 1684 and 1685 by architect Diego de la Sierra. His formal solutions, particularly those of the fluted swirls of Solomonic inspiration found on columns and pilasters, have fed academic discussions regarding theoretical and formal sources the architect might have drawn upon for his design. This article explores the hypothesis that they were possibly modeled, not after the tenets of seventeenth-century theorists such as Fray Juan Ricci and Guarino Guarini, but rather after medieval Romanesque and Gothic buildings, which were widely reinterpreted in New Spain for symbolic reasons, related to the need of ideally rebuilding the Temple of Salomon.