What TYPE of a building is this National Palace from the year 1920??? Because I see the same architecture all over Europe? Is it Helenic/Greek? Can you please give more detail?
Oh, wait, the picture postcard is from the 1920s; construction of the palace began right after the Spanish conquest 400 years earlier, and, like virtually all these European marvels, (re)construction continued ever since. Hence, it's a mixture of Renaissance (roughly 16th century), Baroque (17th-18th centuries), and later styles.
A quite detailed account of the building's history (which is approx. accurate) is here:
My husband’s family was from Mexico. His mother’s family is still in the Mexico City area. His father’s family was chased out of Mexico by Pancho Villa (americanos estúpidos). Some went back.
Ah, what a bummer--but this is, by the way, how most of these things go: they are discarded, lost, or otherwise disappear over time.
I was lucky with the postcards and papers of my grandfather as no-one wanted to throw them away (my grandfather died in 1988, his wife in 2000), esp. my mother who kept them since…
A wonderful legacy, that no one wanted to let them go because they were his.
My husband’s family was full of people with personal problems that affected their decisions and so not much was special to them. After the funeral we went to the pawnshop where some of his dad’s things had been hocked and bought them back, and then to the storage shed behind his sister’s house and grabbed what we could find. He found some pictures and a few mementos. Not much left of a lifetime.
What TYPE of a building is this National Palace from the year 1920??? Because I see the same architecture all over Europe? Is it Helenic/Greek? Can you please give more detail?
Oh, wait, the picture postcard is from the 1920s; construction of the palace began right after the Spanish conquest 400 years earlier, and, like virtually all these European marvels, (re)construction continued ever since. Hence, it's a mixture of Renaissance (roughly 16th century), Baroque (17th-18th centuries), and later styles.
A quite detailed account of the building's history (which is approx. accurate) is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_(Mexico)#History_of_the_building
The biggest change to the early modern era (c. 1450-1800) was the addition of a third floor, as this picture showing the prior state indicates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_(Mexico)#/media/File:National_Palace,_Mexico_City_(3675114985).jpg
Long story short, it's post-mediaeval European architecture, which art historians have subdivided into these periods mentioned above.
This is a wonderful series.
My husband’s family was from Mexico. His mother’s family is still in the Mexico City area. His father’s family was chased out of Mexico by Pancho Villa (americanos estúpidos). Some went back.
Oh, wow, any chance there are photographs in your attic somewhere?
I wish. When his dad died we found what we could, but most had been lost
Ah, what a bummer--but this is, by the way, how most of these things go: they are discarded, lost, or otherwise disappear over time.
I was lucky with the postcards and papers of my grandfather as no-one wanted to throw them away (my grandfather died in 1988, his wife in 2000), esp. my mother who kept them since…
A wonderful legacy, that no one wanted to let them go because they were his.
My husband’s family was full of people with personal problems that affected their decisions and so not much was special to them. After the funeral we went to the pawnshop where some of his dad’s things had been hocked and bought them back, and then to the storage shed behind his sister’s house and grabbed what we could find. He found some pictures and a few mementos. Not much left of a lifetime.
It's the same with most people I've come to know: they give away, clear out, or sell "old stuff".
In my postcard collection's case, I was very fortunate as my mother is a bit of a hoarder of these things, and I'm very grateful for that.