Famous Landmarks in Lima
A cathedral and a rebuilt palace still frame the square both broke ground on in 1535.
The city's oldest landmarks sit within a few blocks of one another in the Historic Centre, arranged around the Plaza Mayor: a Renaissance-fronted cathedral on its eastern side, a baroque revival government palace to the north, and a Franciscan basilica a short walk away. None of the three is the product of a single building campaign. The cathedral took nearly two centuries to reach its present form; the government palace burned down twice before being rebuilt in the 1920s and 1930s; the basilica grew into a complex alongside two smaller churches on a single block. Baroque and Renaissance detailing dominate, carried over from a colonial centre repeatedly rebuilt on the same central ground, and all three buildings are recognised as cultural heritage of the country, with the basilica's block also inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Cathedral of Lima
1602–1797 · Francisco Becerra
A Renaissance facade fills the eastern side of a large colonial square, flanked by an archbishop's residence and a smaller chapel; the exterior reads as continuous construction rather than one design campaign.
The cathedral serves as seat of the Archdiocese and stands as the oldest and largest church in the country. Its foundation was laid in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro, but the structure seen today took shape between 1602 and 1797, when construction finally finished. It occupies the eastern edge of the city's main square, next to the Archbishop's Palace and a smaller chapel, the Iglesia del Sagrario, and it is dedicated to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist.
- Construction began in 1535, the same year work started on the government palace a few blocks away.
Photo: Wasiwatana (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Government Palace of Peru
1926–1938 · Claude Sahut and Ricardo de Jaxa Malachowski
A baroque revival facade occupies the northern side of the main square; ceremonial guard units in dress uniform change watch there each day.
Also known as the House of Pizarro, the palace is the seat of the executive branch of the Peruvian government and the president's official residence. It stands on the site of a huaca, a pre-Hispanic revered place, on a bank of the Rímac River. An earlier residence built here in 1535 served the viceroys of the Viceroyalty of Peru until fire destroyed much of it; the present palace, in a baroque revival style, replaced it between 1926 and 1938.
- The huaca beneath the palace held a shrine to Taulichusco, the last indigenous governor of the area before Spanish rule.
- The earlier residence on the site burned twice, in 1884 and 1921, before the current palace replaced it.
Photo: User:Pedro Felipe (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Basilica and Convent of San Francisco
1546–1674
A baroque facade forms one wing of a religious complex that also holds a small sanctuary and a second church, filling an entire block bounded on all sides by streets.
The basilica and its adjoining Franciscan convent form a religious complex together with two smaller churches, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Solitude and the Church of the Virgin of the Miracle, spread across a block framed by four streets. The Spanish scholar Ramón Menéndez Pidal called it "the largest and noblest monument that the conquest erected in these prodigious lands." The complex belongs to the historic core of the city, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991.
Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
History
Construction on the main square began in 1535, when the cathedral and the first government residence both broke ground under Francisco Pizarro, on ground that already held an indigenous shrine. The residence became the seat of the Viceroyalty of Peru after 1542 and stood for nearly three and a half centuries until fires in 1884 and 1921 destroyed it; its baroque revival replacement went up between 1926 and 1938. The cathedral took longer still, its Renaissance design reaching present form only in 1797 after continuous building from 1602. Franciscan friars founded their convent nearby in 1546, and building on the basilica and its adjoining chapels continued into the 1670s. The historic core holding all three was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1991.