La Merced Square History

The small square La Merced was born with the church that began to be built toward 1850. On Villavicencio’s plan, 1858, an empty land can be observed in front of the church that occupies the fourth part of the block located among “Calle Nueva” (New street), “ La Gallera” (the Cockpit), Olmedo and La Merced street, later known as Bolívar or Del Bajo street.

In 1867, the French traveler De Gabriac relates the atmosphere of a religious party at La Merced: “In the morning there was a great mass, which the ladies attended, as usual, in black dresses and covered with their veils; but it was at night that the main ceremony took place. The neighboring square had been decked out with banners and draperies. They had garlands, small lamps, exuberant Chinese lanterns, in short, a complete illumination, certainly without forgetting, the artifice games, Roman candles and mainly the firecrackers… While these detonations were heard outside, inside the salvation took place, with reverence or not, at least very happily."

La Merced neighborhood was always considered” aristocratic", but It stopped being residential as modernity advanced. In 1895, La Merced Square began to be called Pedro Carbo Square, as a statue in homage to the tribune was already being planned.

On August 10, 1907, Pedro Carbo park was inaugurated, with an elegant design of low fences and small gardens, around a streetlight lifted exactly in the elected place for the monument.

Finally, on December 8, 1909, the Guayaquileños could appreciate the Italian Augusto Faggioni's work in all its splendor this square at present time is rejuvenated, under the parameters of the use of space that preserve the permanency of these symbolic locations, where memory and daily chores are combined.

By: Angel Emilio Hidalgo, Historian.