The kitchen during the colonial time, was a big place where many people used to work, most of them women; because families were big they needed a lot of people cooking for them, specially in the monasteries.
This kitchens had a typical structure. At the beginning, they were divided in two parts: the first part -known as kitchen- and the second one, ‘antecocina’ (a kind of pantry and preparation room). The first part of the kitchen contained ovens, cupboards set into the walls and a ‘poyo’ (a brick and mud structure that ran on firewood).
Due to the smoke that the poyo created and the fact that this would become trapped in the kitchen, people saw the need to introduce chimneys. These were built above the colonial kitchen in the center, with a pyramid-like structure and 4 or 8 straight sides. Somber in appearance, these chimneys were made from stone, brick and mortar.
As well as helping ventilate a kitchen full of smoke, the chimney provided light to the space – for this reason the highest part of the chimney featured a lantern-like structure. Although this type of chimney bears resemblance to certain Spanish structures, there is no direct link between the constructions of the two countries.
As an interesting side note, in a study that the architect Alejandro Flores carried out he describes how he found the same type of chimney in the Palais des Papes in Avignon, France and in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey in England.
In the case of the antecocina, this space was filled with huge tables that were used to cut up vegetables and organize the plates before sending them through to the kitchen to serve the food. These spaces also worked as a type of pantry or larder – something that we can still see in existence today in the Convento Santa Clara or in the Casa Popenoe.