Instituto Nacional Mejía

José Mejía Lequerica, patron of the Instituto Nacional Mejía.

The Liberal Revolution of 1895 marked the beginning of a period of numerous reforms and important modernisation efforts in Ecuador.[3] One of the most influential and famous leading figures of the Revolution was Eloy Alfaro, who would subsequently serve as President of Ecuador for two, non-consecutive, terms until his assassination in 1912.[3] Under his direction, the Ecuadorian government started a series of important works such as the completion of the Trans-Andean Railway connecting Quito and Guayaquil.[3] Furthermore, the new Liberal government unfolded a process of secularisation of the state.[3] This is instanciated at the educational level in the construction of several of the first secular educational institutions of the country,[3][4] the clearest example of this being the foundation of the Instituto Nacional Mejía[4] on June 1, 1897 by Alfaro's orders.[5] Other important educational institutions founded by Alfaro include a School of Beaux Arts,[4] the second foundation of the National Conservatory of Music of Ecuador,[6] and the Manuela Cañizares High School.[7]

Scaffolding on the south side of the antiguo Beaterio building, where the Instituto Nacional Mejía was located in the early 20th century.

The Instituto Nacional Mejía was originally located at the north side of the Metropolitan Cultural Centre[5] and was later moved to an old building informally known as the "antiguo Beaterio",[8][5] Spanish for "old nunnery", (which had formerly served for various purposes, from religious retreat to Catholic girls school[2]), at the intersection of the streets José Joaquín de Olmedo and Sebastián de Benalcázar. Both buildings were located at the heart of Quito's Old Town ("Centro Histórico"). In 1922, the high school administration commissioned a new, bigger building, to the German architect Wilhelm Spahr and the local architect Pedro Aulestia Saá,[5] which was to be located at the, back then, northern edge of the city. Thus, the high school would remain at the antiguo Beaterio building only up until the early 1930s.[2] The construction of a new building is also to be taken against the backdrop of the centenary celebrations for the Battle of Pichincha (May 24, 1822), which is conventionally seen as securing the separation of the territories of the then Real Audiencia of Quito from the Spanish Empire, an important antecedent for the construction of Ecuador as a republican nation-state.[9]

The newly founded secondary school quickly acquired popularity and prestige within the country. Hence, following the limited availability of spaces to meet the increasing student demand, a new large building was built in the 1950s on the west side of the block occupied by the Edificio Central.[8] The original purpose of this building was to house the students who came from the various provinces of Ecuador.[8] Later its infrastructure was repurposed to make room for more student classrooms and laboratories.[8] Thus, giving birth to the Edificio Internado. Later, in the 1970s, the School of Telecommunications of the Army of Ecuador ceded its building to the High School, establishing in this way the Edificio Sur.[5] This last building occupies a second block, separated from the rest of the High School by the Antonio Ante street.

Thus, this complex of buildings comprising the Instituto Nacional Mejía is currently located at the north end of Quito's Old Town.

Façade of the “Edificio Central” today.

In 1922, the administration of the Instituto Nacional Mejía orders the construction of this building to the German architect Wilhelm Spahr,[2][5] which would be later amended by the Ecuadorian architect Pedro Aulestia.[2] This will become the future Edificio Central (Spanish for "Central Building"), located at the intersection of the Vargas and Juan Pablo Arenas streets. It was the second public Neoclassical style building of Ecuador,[10] after the Teatro Nacional Sucre and became an icon of the architectural landscape of Quito, in the first half of the 20th century.[5]

The building was constructed on top of irregular terrain.[2][5] Spahr used this irregularity to his advantage by adding some series of long stone staircases leading up to the Neoclassical façade, which added up to the monumentality of the whole structure.[5] In this way, the façade of the school overlooks the entire Juan Pablo Arenas street. Two stone busts rest at the base of the first set of staircases. One depicting Mr. Eloy Alfaro, founder of the institution. The other representing José Mejía Lequerica, patron of the institution.[2]

The Neoclassical style displayed by the Edificio Central is inspired by the architectural style of the 16th century Italian and English rural mansions designed by the Paduan architect Andrea Palladio.[5] Characteristic of this Palladian style is the school's façade composed of tall columns of several floors high and its pediment.[5]

The walls of the Edificio Central are made out of brick and were originally left uncladded until the 1950s when several parts of the building were painted in white, in particular the façade.[2] This lack of cladding would have been the result of a lack of funding.[2] The building possesses a tiled roof and timber floors.[2]

Spahr originally envisioned the central part of the building (marked by the façade) as serving for administrative purposes, whereas the pavilions on both extremes were conceived as student accommodations, and the sections in between as spaces for laboratories and classrooms.[5] But by 1928 this idea was abandoned and the pavilions at both ends of the Edificio Central were repurposed to fit more classrooms and laboratories.[5]

It was built in 1955, neighbouring the Edificio Central of the Instituto Nacional Mejía, it originally lodged the Ecuadorian Army School of Telecommunications, and from 1968 it also housed the Ecuadorian Army Corps of Engineers.[11] The building was ceded to the Instituto Nacional Mejía in the 1970s, due to the latter's struggle to cope with its high demand of students.[11] The building is nowadays part of a larger complex that occupies its entire block, separated from the rest of the educational centre by the Antonio Ante street. The original building presents Mudejar and Art Deco architectural elements.[11]

Known as Museo de Ciencias Naturales ("Museum of Natural Science"), it is regarded as one of the first and most important of its kind in the country.[10] It contains a collection of 2 847 animals comprising 2 246 birds, 293 mammals, 172 reptiles, 122 fish, and 14 amphibians.[14]

It was founded in 1905[15] by disposition of Mr. Eloy Alfaro, who ordered the purchase of 50 animal specimens from the Deyrolle house in Paris along with some national specimens.[10][15] In 1920 there was an acquisition of an additional 1 000 specimens of Ecuadorian fauna.[10] The collection was later transferred to the Edificio Central (Central Building) once its construction was completed, where it remains today. As the years progressed, the collection would continue to grow intermittently with the addition of private collections from leading families of the country.[10]

In 1936, Gustavo Orcés, regarded as the father of Zoology studies in Ecuador,[16] insisted on identifying and classifying the ornithologic section held at the museum.[17] During this work, the pioneer Ecuadorian zoologist managed to identify specimens pertaining to around 1 000 species of the 1 400 known in the country at the time.[17] In 1943, he finished his taxonomic labour at the museum.[17][10]

In 1981, an agreement with the Central Bank of Ecuador ensured the funding for the restoration and rehabilitation of the museum.[10] This intervention was scientific and museographic in character and it included once again the participation of Gustavo Orcés, along with other teachers of the high school such as Fernando Ortiz, Osvaldo Báez, and Bolívar Reinoso.[10]

As already established, the collection of birds is the most important and numerous of the museum. It includes birds as diverse as "curiquingues", "tayos", condors, and various species of tucans, owls, and parrots. In addition, there are embalmed species of Galápagos tortoise, sharks, iguanas, snakes, and mammals like the jaguar, armadillos, bats, rodents and marsupials.[10]

The Ethnographic Museum contains a collection of 57 wooden sculptures with traditional clothing and settings depicting several of the ethnic groups of the country,[18] covering the three natural regions of the Ecuadorian mainland and divided into 18 rooms.[19] It also serves as the de facto Anthropological Museum of Ecuador.[20]

In 1950, the pieces of the Anthropological Museum of Ecuador were owned by the National Institute of Anthropology and Geography,[18] and were exhibited until 1952.[20] In 1974 those pieces (22 wooden sculptures) were donated to the Instituto Nacional Mejía,[20][18] thus establishing its Ethnographic Museum. The author of the pieces was the sculptor Galo Tobar.[19]

A total of 21 ethnicities are depicted in the 18 rooms.[20] The aim of the museum is to represent some of the multiple ethnic groups of Ecuador in their daily (traditional) activities. The groups represented include Shuar, Achuar, Cofán, Huaorani, Salasaca, Tsachila, Awá, Saraguro and Otavalo people, among others. It also includes sculptures of Danzantes of Cayambe (also known as Danzantes of Aricucho), and Danzantes of Huachi.[20]

In addition, this museum possesses some original indigenous items such as head rings, and shrunken heads or "tzantzas". It also displays some embalmed specimens of local animals, dioramas, and fragments of Ecuadorian megafauna bones.