Porras, Diego (1677–1741)

Diego Porras (also Porres; b. 19 November 1677; d. 25 September 1741), Guatemalan architect. The most important architect in the kingdom of Guatemala during the first half of the eighteenth century, Porras won renown for designing and building the monastery and church of the Escuela de Cristo, the Santa Clara convent and church, the Archbishop's Palace, the Royal Mint, the San Alejo Hospital, and the City Hall, all monuments in Antigua, Guatemala. He helped design the following churches: Los Remedios, San Agustín, the Cathedral, la Recolección, Santa Teresa, and la Compañía de Jesús in Antigua, and the well-known church of Esquipulas, the Church of Concepción in Ciudad Vieja, and the churches in Patzicía and Escuintla.

Porras also was in charge of hydraulic engineering and planning. Under his direction, water was brought to the towns of San Bernardino Patzún and to San Juan Comalapa. He was the architect for the famous siren fountain in the central plaza in Antigua. In addition, he is credited with being the first architect in Guatemala to use the serliana balustered pilaster.

See alsoArchitecture: Architecture to 1900 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José A. Mobil, 100 personajes históricos de Guatemala (1979), pp. 72-74.

Luis Luján Muñoz, El arquitecto mayor Diego de Porres 1677–1741 (1982).

Elizabeth Bell and Trevor Long, Antigua Guatemala (1991), pp. 93-94.

Additional Bibliography

Luján Muñoz, Luis. Diego de Porres. Guatemala: Consejo Nacional para la Protección de La Antigua Guatemala, 2001.

Luján Muñoz, Luis. Síntesis biográfica del Maestro Mayor de Arquitectura Diego de Porres: 1741–1991. Guatemala: Consejo Nacional para la Protección de la Antigua Guatemala, 1990.

                                             Jane Eddy Swezey