MONUMENTAL TOUR

We develop the tour going through “La Compañía” church and cloister, “San Ignacio de Loyola” church, the Arequipa Main Square and the Cathedral. Then we visit the colonial houses of Tristan del Pozo and Moral and next we go to San Francisco complex and Santa Catalina Monastery that was closed for centuries and now open for public.  Santa Catalina Monastery is a small colonial city, we can see how was Arequipa on XVII century, we are going to walk through its narrow and ancient streets, squares and gardens, typical laundry yard and impressive cloisters locked in huge sillar walls.

THE CATHEDRAL

The Cathedral was built in neoclassical style, and is considered the best colonial architecture work, unique in the world.  The cathedral is between the 70 churches authorized in the world to unfold the standard of the Vatican.  It was built on 1656 over  surface of 20,0000 square meters, with sillar (white volcanic stone) and brick vaults.  It was destroyed by a fire on 1844 and two earthquakes that shook the city.  It was rebuilt at the end of XIX century.
Inside it has a great lamp of Sevillian bronze, marbles of carrara and a pulpit carved in wood of cedar by the scultor Rigot in France.  It has a beautiful organ brought from Belgium, this is one of greatest in South America.

COMPAÑÍA DE JESÚS CHURCH, SAN IGNACIO DOME Y CLOISTERS

La Compañía was built between 1654 an 1698.   It has a beautiful front ofq mestizo baroque style. This front is a clear exponent of mestizo art, where the grotesque art carved on sillar is the symbiosis of Hispanic and native cultures.  Inside the church there are pictorial pictures among them, Bernardo Bitti pictures, the image of “Cristo del Buen Morir”,  work attributed to the famous Juan Martinez "the Montañez" and three golded altarpieces. In the sacristy there are paintings from cuzqueña school. 

The cloisters were built on 1738, and their arcs and carved cornices are conserved intact.  There are gargoyles (feline head) in the high parts of the arcs, which served to drain upper parts of the buildings on rain time.  It has  three patios, the last patio has an exit to another street.

The Chapel of San Ignacio, is very well-known, because it is compared with the Sistine Chapel in Rome – Italy. It is formed by a dome like a half orange; the paintings shaped in the walls are of mestizo style  combined with a mix of animals, vegetation and human figures, Peruvian jungle birds and native faces.

SANTA CATALINA MONASTERY

This is the most important colonial architectonic monument that Arequipa has. It was built to lodge the daughters of the distinguished families in the city.  The monastery was inaugurated in 1580, and it was closed to the world until 1970. 
It occupies an approximated area of twenty thousand square meters. It is a like a small city stopped on time.   It displays  diverse types of architectonic buildings.   It is divided in distributed districts, similar to the first districts of Arequipa with small and nice streets with its own names like Sevilla, Granada, Burgos, etc.  It has a small square called “Zocodover” and in the middle of it there is a fountain.  Also it has 2 museums, one is the Zurbaran room and the other bigger where there are 400 paintings.
It´s address is on Santa Calatina 301.

DEL MORAL COLONIAL HOUSE

The construction dates from century XVIII.  It represents the civil architecture of Arequipa in mestizo baroque mixed style.  On the front there is a nobiliario shield engraving in sillar.   The ceilings are vaulted and are made with carved sillar; also the doors, windows and furniture are beautifully carved.  In its main patio there is still the emblematic Tree of the Mulberry, who gives the name to this colonial house from the beginning of its construction.  In addition the house is painted with the traditional colors of Colonial Arequipa. 
The colonial house del Moral carries a rich artistic representations.  Inside the house there are pictorial partings from colonial times of the Cuzqueña school of the XVIII century.  There is a fascinating collection of colonial and republican furniture that take us back on time.

TRISTÁN DEL POZO COLONIAL HOUSE

Constructed on 1738 to be the old seminary of San Jeronimo.  It is a traditional colonial large house whose front is carved with mestizo and baroque mixed style and it is combined with biblical, classic or indigenous elements. There is a  Jesuit  monogram in the high part of the front carved in sillar.It has spacious and characteristic yards.   This colonial house is considered an architectonic jewel. 

SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH AND COMPLEX

This complex, built on XVI century,  takes in the San Francisco Church, the convent and the minor chapel known to be from the third Franciscan Order.  It is surrounded by a square with the image of St. Francisco de Asis and Jaranda trees.  The floor of this square is made of granite stone and river stone.  The church with a late romantic style, has sillar and brick facade of a mestizo style.  Inside we find a baroque pulpit decorated with shortened relief and a frontal made of silver at the greater altar.
The cloisters are made of sillar with a roman style.  Under these cloisters there are the cells that were occupied by the Third Franciscan Orden where they would practice their spiritual rites.    We also have the  sacred art museum, Pinacoteca Gallery in which we have on display a diverse variety of paintings, priest ormaments and silver utensils dated from XVII century.  There is a Library that has valuable books and ecclesiastical documentos from that epoque. There are more than 20 thounsand volumes.
Next to the cloister there is a short passage called “el Manguillo de San Francisco”, where now a days we have a craftmanship comercial place.  Its name is “Fundo del Fierro”.

LA DAMA DE AMPATO "MOMIA JUANITA"

Juanita, well-known like Lady de Ampato, was a young incas native girl of 12 to 14 years, specially chosen to be sacrificed and offered to Sabancaya volcano.  The sacrifice was made in order to stop the eruptions of this volcano, because they were seriously affecting the crops and animals.