The majority of the native inhabitants used very fragile materials to build their houses and wood and plant fibers, together with palm trees leaves. That is the reason why there are no pre-Columbian buildings that have survived. The best sample of this pre-Columbian architecture has been La Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City), the ancient center of the Tayrona Indians in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. A great part of the houses have disappeared but there are many stone structures and a network of terraces and stairs that have survived in time.At the arrival of the Spanish bricks and glazed tiles were introduced for the buildings of the new colonial cities. The first houses were built as the Andalusian style, painted in white, with two floors, interior yards and balconies.The first ones were small and modest churches but later churches were huge and majestic buildings decorated inside. Up to the 19 Century the Spanish style was the predominant style, although there are also some Italian, French adn English influences. The Modern architecture came to the country after World War II. Its style prevailed very rapidly in the 1960’s and the best examples of this can be seen in Bogotá and Medellín cities.
