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Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - Doyle Phillips - 07-27-2014
On the internet i find contradictory info about the Mercado Hidalgo. Do you know the true story?
Did Eiffel design any of it?
Did he design just the entrance and clock tower?
No matter who designed it was the building really a copy of a railway station?
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - roberb7 - 07-27-2014
The architects were Ernesto Brunel and Antonio Rivas Mercado. I had heard that the design was based on a French railroad station (the only place where Eiffel might have been in the picture), but I didn't find anything on the internet to support this. I did read that the building was originally intended as a railroad station, but I'm skeptical of this. Think about it; what's the most important thing you need to have a railroad station?
Answer: tracks.
How would they have gotten tracks to the Mercado Hidalgo location? A tunnel, maybe, but the location of the ex estacion del ferrocarril off Tepetapa makes more sense.
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - mr bill - 07-27-2014
Doyle I've always wondered about that too but what was confusing me was the name on the placque -not Eiffel but Brunel - was he the English engineer/architect?
Most web accounts of Mercado Hidlago are un-researched unattributed plagiarized copy and paste from some original erroneous article. Taking a different approach this page gets to the Train Staion idea Robert7 mentions: The Mercado Hidalgo, Guanajuato's Failed Project. However seaching Eiffel and his works one finds no authoritative mention of any project in GTO. However when one searches Ernesto Brunel the Mercado is discovered - here is an excellent slide show on his works [Mercado Hidalgo is slide 69]
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - doncoulter - 07-27-2014
I'm glad to hear the Eiffel/Mercado Hidalgo myth laid to rest. Thanks, roberb7.
There are at least two Eiffel designs in Mexico, however. One is the Santa Barbara church in Santa Rosalia, BCS. I saw it a couple of decades ago, and as I recall, it was an all-metal pre-fab design, the various panels shipped over from France and then assembled on site. It was architecturally interesting, I suppose, but not terribly attractive. The other Eiffel design is the Palacio de Hierro in Orizaba, Veracruz, originally designed to house government offices, today occupied by museums and so on. I wonder if the department-store chain is named after it.
Don
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - mr bill - 07-27-2014
There is an article in El Universal/Guanjuato that links Brunel to the "failed train station" here and thus removes Eiffel from the picture
And the idea persists -- as recently as a year ago in the Periodico AM there was an article re Bajio Lite Rail that had Mercado Hidalgo as the terminus of a spur on the Leon-Queretero line. It was planned to be an Undergorund station [a subway to GTO]. I could not locate the article but it is similar in content to this post on Skyscapercity from 2007
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - Doyle Phillips - 07-28-2014
The Wikipedia list of Eiffel's projects seems to be all inclusive and does not mention Mercado Hidalgo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Eiffel
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - laconstance - 07-28-2014
A couple of years ago, I met at a local dinner party a Mexican woman with a French name. (Sorry, can't remember it). She told me that her grandfather (great grandfather?) was an architect who had come to Guanajuato to help supervise the construction of the Mercado Hidalgo, fell in love with and married a local girl, and the family has lived here ever since. I had always thought that the building was a pre-fabricated steel structure, shipped in pieces to Mexico. It is not unlike the steel skeleton buildings that were cutting-edge architecture in Europe at the time: the Crystal Palace, the Eiffel Tower, and innumerable train stations. I doubt that Brunel actually designed it -- it makes more sense that he would have overseen its placement and construction. It also makes sense to me that a French architect would have been sent over to collaborate, even if he himself did not do the actual design.
From my roof terrazza I see the east end and clock tower of the Mercado just 3 blocks away. I have often wondered about it. Are newspaper archives held anywhere in Guanajuato? If so, the newspapers of the day could shed some light on the project.
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - vagamundo - 07-28-2014
On a related note, Eiffel did design quite a few structures in South America. In Arica, Chile there is an interesting church that was also pre-fab metal that was shipped there in pieces and reconstructed. Once inside, one notices immediately that Eiffel had a hand in the design.
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - roberb7 - 07-30-2014
Indeed. I've seen the Eiffel Bridge in Arequipa, Peru. I have a couple of pictures of it buried away.
RE: Eiffel and Mercado Hidalgo? - vagamundo - 07-30-2014
Yes, I have walked across this bridge, which is called the Bolivar Bridge. It was originally constructed for trains, as bridges were Eiffels speciality, but the bridge is now used for vehicles and pedestrians.
There are several structures designed by Eiffel in Peru, Chile, and Bolivia including the train station in Santiago, CL, the train depot in La Paz, Bol, which is now a bus depot, and a iron house in Iquitos that was built during the rubber boom there at the turn of the 20th century. Some smaller towns in Peru also have Eiffel projects.