Colonial architecture describes work created during a period of colonization and often features a hybrid between the architecture of the colonizers and the architecture of the country where the work is built. For this reason, the characteristics of colonial architecture include a great range of styles. The buildings are sometimes Baroque, Late Baroque, Classical, Renaissance, and more. It is better to take colonial architecture as a style because it represents a time in a nation’s history when architecture could symbolize oppression, democracy, and much more.
São Francisco de Assis Church
The Church of São Francisco de Assis is a Rococo Catholic church in Ouro Preto, Brazil. Its erection began in 1766 after a design by the Brazilian architect and sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa. Lisboa designed both the structure of the church and the carved decorations on the interior, which were only finished towards the end of the 19th century.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was designed by British-born architectural engineer Frederick William Stevens from an initial design by Axel Haig, in an exuberant Italian Gothic style.
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral is situated on top of the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución in the historic center of Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, eventually replacing it entirely. Spanish architect Claudio de Arciniega planned the construction, drawing inspiration from Gothic cathedrals in Spain.
Daraga Church
Nuestra Señora de la Porteria Parish Church, commonly known as Daraga Church, is a Roman Catholic Church in the municipality of Daraga, Albay, Philippines under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Legazpi. The church was built by the Franciscans in 1772 under the patronage of the Our Lady of the Gate.
Presidential Palace, Hanoi
It was built between 1900 and 1906 to house the French Governor-General of Indochina, constructed by Auguste Henri Vildieu, the official French architect for French Indochina. Like most French Colonial architecture, the palace is pointedly European. The only visual cues that it is located in Vietnam at all are mango trees growing on the grounds.
