Santander México | El Acueducto de Querétaro

El Acueducto de Querétaro

Antonio López Oliver

Antonio López Oliver was born in Torreón, Coahuila, on June 21, 1926 and died in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon in 2014. He found his vocation for painting, especially for watercolors, in Spain. He began painting in the mid 1940's and had his first show in 1949 at the Asociación de Artistas de la Coruña in Spain. A few years later he was awarded first place in the Salón de la Acuarela of the same institution.

He reached his maturity and total mastery of the craft and therefore the full recognition of his mastery in Monterrey, N.L., his adoptive city, which then was extended to Mexico City and abroad. With a remarkable professional career, he is considered one of the best watercolorists in Mexico, although he has dabbled in other techniques such as oil painting.

The mural Acueducto de Querétaro dates from 1962. It stands out because of the play with transparencies, the delicacy of the shades, the harmony of the tones, the atmospheric and luminous values through which the artist expresses his lyrical feeling before nature and his communion with the landscape.

Its theme is the monumental viceroyalty building that currently has 74 arches, reaching an average height of 28.5 m, and a length of 1,280 m, and which dates back to the eighteenth century, a time when Queretaro had become one of the most productive cities in the New Spain, reaching its greatest prosperity and urban development.

In spite of the above, water supply was bad and unsanitary, so in view of constant complaints from the citizens, the City Council decided to explore the possibility of constructing something to transport water from the upper part of the Blanco River (today the Querétaro River) to the urban layout, a project that was mainly financed by Don Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana Pérez Esnauriz, Marquis of Villa del Villar del Águila, great benefactor of the city.

The best furrows of the so-called Ojo de Agua del Capulín, in the town of San Pedro La Cañada, were chosen and a large pool was built to capture the water produced and transport it from there to Queretaro through a channel.

The daunting construction of this iconic aqueduct was completed on October 17, 1738.