LIMA - A history told in maps
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
2Perrottet, O.
2LIMA2000 Email: lima2000@vtxmail.ch
Abstract
Lima was founded in 1535 by the spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro, who chose for his residence and administrative headquarters, the dwellings of the local chieftain. The spot, located at the gates of the main irrigation system, had already been a center of power for more than a thousand years. From there, water was supplied to a huge agricultural area which had been developed since 200 BC, forming an artificial oasis in the middle of the coastal desert. The first map of the city still preserved today shows the situation 140 years later. By then, the town had consolidated, but hardly grown. Shortly after, it was walled against the pirates and stayed the same size for another two centuries. This long period of no territorial growth at all produced half a dozen city maps from different epochs, but with practically identical contents. They were made by foreign cartographers and publishers, some residing in town and others just visiting. While this in some cases might have affected the accuracy, the cartographic and artistic presentations are all the more remarkable. The country’s independence in 1821 and the subsequent organization of a new government lead to de first locally produced maps of Lima and its surroundings, elaborated with oustanding quality in design and precision, mostly by ‚engineers of the state‘. The city is connected with the port and sea resorts by railway, but it still cannot expand, not even after the wall is finally demolished. The outbreak of the Pacific War, foreign occupation and the subsequent political commotions postpone any urban development for decades. By the end of the 19th century, plans of expansion are made, clearly emulating Haussmann’s famous redesign of Paris. Some of the city maps are still produced in Europe. Only from 1900 onwards, when the commercial use of city maps becomes more frequent, local map makers definitely take over, but cartography, being regarded as part of engineering, does not establish itself as an independent discipline. As the city is only starting to develop, the new street maps cover only slightly more than the traditional area, maintaining their square shape. On the other hand, maps of the surroundings become increasingly important, either as overall views or detailed partial plans. Between 1920 and 1940, the urban area doubles in size, which demands adjustments in map design and formats, as well as in people’s perception of their city. There ist still traditional ‚Lima‘, but another one is forming as the city grows, mainly towards the south. Maps first become long and vertical, but then square shaped again, showing also the development to the west. Finally, a horizontal rectangle includes the port of Callao which is becoming part of an emerging metropolitan space. What happens after 1940, has not even been imagined by the government, its city planners, or the people of Lima in general. Due to massive migration from rural areas to the city. Some of the new quarters are simply ignored by the maps for years, as the traditional people of Lima prefer to regard the ‚barriadas‘, provisional shanty towns, as a phenomenon that surely would disappear. They are proved wrong: during the following 30 years, population increases almost four times. Another reason for excluding the new surrounding districts from the city maps is a very practical one: Maintaining the scale, they just are ‚off the edge‘ of the largest printable sheet of paper. Map publishers content themselves with reprinting the traditional, now incomplete maps, with minor additions. This situation changes in the late seventies, when a change of cartographic design, from double-line to one-line representation of streets, is introduced. This allows to reduce the scale to an extent that the entire city fits on one sheet again. Today, this characteristic has become a standard for printed maps of Lima, while other formats and designs exist in digital form.