- TURY.CLUB
- Tourist Objects
- Peru
- Lima
- San Francisco Monastery in Lima
The monastery and church of San Francisco are one of the few buildings in the historical part of Lima, erected in colonial time and preserved to this day, despite numerous destructive earthquakes.
San Francisco Monastery is located a block from the central Plaza de Armos. The construction of the monastery began in 1542 and was completed almost a century and a half later in 1674. The inner walls of the monastery and the church are decorated with tiles specially brought from Seville. The San Francisco Monastery is famous for its rich library, it contains an extensive collection of religious texts, some of which relate to the first wave of the resettlement of Spanish priests after the conquest of the Incas. The monastery has a museum of religion and art.
The most popular among tourists are the catacombs of the monastery. In fact, they were part of the original cemeteries of Lima, which at that time were with all the churches. First, only priests were buried here, later ordinary lay people. The guides say that just under San Francisco alone, about 75,000 bodies are buried; how many were burnt and buried in round stone pits is not known for certain at all. Scientific research of the underground labyrinth began only in the middle of the 20th century, and it soon became clear that the Peruvian catacombs have a unique design that allows them to withstand even a very strong earthquake. It was also found that secret corridors connected the catacombs with the cathedral and the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition.
