Casa Sucre Museum also known in Spanish as Museos de la Defensa Casa de Sucre
Quito’s Historic downtown center in the hearth of this sixteenth-century town has many touristic places for local and foreign tourists alike to visit. La Plaza Grande is one of these places. Ecuadorians likewise call this plaza by its new formal name Plaza de la Independencia or Independence Square. There is a monument in the center of the plaza to commemorate their “first cry of independence” constructed in 1906. Under President’s Eloy Alfaro term, in honor to their independence heroes. It was after this event that they changed the name to Independence Square.
The Plaza Grande is Quito’s main public area, throng with people all the time day and night. Here you will find street vendors, street performers, pedestrians, people feeding pigeons, kids selling candy, a preacher, kids playing and police patrolling. Because of all these it is a place full of movement. From here you can visit other places of interest. Places as; The Carondelet Palace, The Cathedral, Sucre’s museum, Alberto Mena Camaño Museum, and Archbishop’s Palace. All within walking distance from the plaza.
We tried to visit Sucre’s Museum once before, but this was on Ecuador’s Independence Day August 10th. Because the waiting line was too long at that moment, we tried another time. This second time was much better, we had to wait for 10 minutes to enter with a group tour. There is a guard who takes your information; name, where do you come from?, and where do you live?. I assume they like to keep records of the guest’s names, and there is no entrance fee.
Before we entered the museum, the first object that caught my attention was this door knocker. Maybe because we wrote a post on door knockers and doors of South America that fascinate us.
Next to the door there is a plaque with a brief information about the place in Spanish. The purpose of preserving this colonial house is to show how life used to be in Quito back in eighteenth-and nineteenth centuries, and the people who lived here.
Our tour guide was a young man, he carried out the tour interesting, with some jokes he played along the entire tour. The tour comprises four parts. The first part is information about the house itself and different common areas. The second part comprises some of Quito’s civil organizations during the eighteen and nineteen centuries. Then the third part is about the time when The Marques de Solanda inhabit the house. The fourth part is about Sucre and Bolivar’s participation in the fight for independence.
We learned that Sucre added an extension to the house. He purchased the adjacent area from his father-in-law and expanded the house. He had an architect made some changes to the original plan under his supervision. He was a person who payed attention to detail and thought out the different uses of the areas of the house. After Sucre’s remodel it became recognized as the Casa Azul (blue house.)
The house includes two floors as many houses of the time. On the first floor we find an area that is now an office, thus we enter to the house itself. A water-feature plays as a centerpiece in the patio, all the other areas surround the main patio. This is a very common practice in Spanish colonial homes.
Continuing our visit on the main floor we came across two common areas, a storage room, bathrooms. A space that operated as the stable, a room with pictures and some history information. Our tour guide emphasized a full-body size painting of Sucre in which one can appreciate his black boot, the one that would follow you whichever direction you went. Similar to the eye effect in some older paintings.
On the second floor we find a guest room, the living room, a prayer room, the dinning room, kitchen, an oven area, and the bedrooms. Our tour guide mentioned that Sucre enjoyed working pass the oven area. This part of the house would keep him aside from any noise going on in the house. The tour guide also mentioned the fact the Sucre and his wife imported their furniture from Europe.
A peculiarity, they had mirrors! Our tour guide had an interesting account on the subject. Telling us how mirrors were made of silver or a combination of copper and tin. Overtime this mirrors tarnished. It was in Murano-Italy on the eighteen centuries that glass mirrors were made. Sucre and his wife were proud of their mirrors.
This Blue House shows how important and wealthy their owners were. Our tour guide pointed out the many affairs that were held in this house. Banquets attended by the Quito aristocracy, and regular visits of illustrious characters like Simón Bolívar were an orthodox practice by the Marques and the Marshall back to when they occupied the house. There is a menu on the dining room wall I found amusing. The list in the menu included dishes like: roasted domestic birds with sauce, roasted hunting birds, roasted rabbit with or without sauce, dried tongues. Dishes typical of the region and the time in which they were prepared.
Today, the museum is well preserved, although it had to pass some reconstruction to bring it up to standards. It was the Ministry of Defense in charge of buying the Blue House and to remodel it into what we have today. It opened its door in 1977 in honor of The Marshall Antonio José de Sucre and his wife Mariana Carcelén.
The Marshall Antonio José de Sucre was a Venezuelan Independence hero, who helped Ecuador to gain independence from Spain in 1822, when libertarian troops under his command won the famous Battle of Pichincha.
On a side note, I wanted to visit the house one more time and take new pictures, last time we were there the tour was crowded not making it easy to take a clean shot.
Now as I write this post on October 12th 2019, we can’t help but ponder how the center of Quito looks like. In what condition this historic center is at, as of today? This Quito center, is one of the grandest, and least altered in the Americas. It was in 1978 when UNESCO declared both; Quito, and Kraków (Poland) the first World Cultural Heritage Sites. All this history is now in danger because of some political disagreements under the government of Martín Lenín, and the indigenous people. While other groups are taking advantage of this situation rioting, and burglarizing the city. People have the right to disagree, and fight for what is right. But people should always love, and preserve their old heritage. It is a way to show pride in their country.
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South America seems to refuse to show its inexhaustible creative force.
