How the architecture of the Panama-California Exposition,
which influenced the appearance of all California, flowed from designs
of famed buildings in historic Spain, Mexico and Italy

It was in Puebla that the use of color reached its height in Colonial Mexico. Native craftsmen created the rich tiles which made Puebla a city of glistening domes and towers. Tile even was carried to the facade of churches, as in the Church of San Francisco, shown below, which was completed in about 1570. Its red main portal is spotted with colorful tiles. It was the design of this portal which inspired the east frontispiece of the large building on the north side of the Prado between the California Tower and Plaza de Panama. It is shown in the upper photo, as adapted to conform with its surrounding architecture. In the Church of San Francisco is buried the friar, Sebastián de Aparicio, who is credited with building the first roads in the new world.