Ruins of the churrigueresque Franciscan church and convent of San Luis Obispo in Mexico. The church was an open chapel, built with only three walls in order to speed construction and accommodate larger congregations. Photographed by D矇sir矇 Charnay (1828-1915) in 1858. Charnay, who began his archaeological explorations in 1858, was one of the first of archaeologist-explorers to break with the romanticized conception of ancient Mexico and use the camera as an instrument for scientific research. Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the entrance on the main facade of a building.