Lima’s historic centre: squares, churches and balconies

A city founded in 1535 on land that was already inhabited

Francisco Pizarro founded Lima in January 1535 under the name “Ciudad de los Reyes”, the City of Kings, in the Rímac Valley, on land then governed by a local chiefdom. The valley had been inhabited and developed for centuries, as Huaca Pucllana and the sanctuary of Pachacámac remind us.

For two centuries, Lima was the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru and the most important city in Spanish South America. The religious orders built considerable convents and churches there; San Marcos University was founded there in 1551. The creation of the viceroyalties of New Granada (1718) and then Río de la Plata (1777) gradually reduced its role. The city remained surrounded by walls until 1870.

What the earthquakes did to the architecture

The earthquakes of 1586, 1687 and 1746 transformed the way buildings were made. After them, ground floors were built of brick and earth, and upper floors of quincha, a technique of pre-Hispanic origin made of a frame of wood and reeds covered with mud and plaster, more flexible in the face of tremors. It is on these light upper floors that the famous wooden enclosed balconies hang, overhanging the street, which made it possible to see without being seen. UNESCO cites them as a characteristic of Lima’s civil architecture, which remained stable until the end of the 19th century.

In the 20th century, further earthquakes (1940, 1966, 1970, 1974) and new roads cut through the city changed the centre again: Avenida Abancay, opened in 1940, cut off part of the great San Francisco monastery. The historic centre was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1988, then extended in 1991 to include monuments in Rímac, on the other side of the river. To understand these earthquakes and what the earthquake-resistant design standard requires today, see earthquakes and tsunamis in Peru.

Visiting inside or looking from outside

Many buildings in the centre are admired from the street: the Government Palace, the Archbishop’s Palace and, on weekdays, the Torre Tagle palace. Others can be visited with a ticket:

For the San Francisco monastery, the published information differs: the Ministry of Culture’s register of museums gives opening hours every day from 9:00 to 20:15, the municipal website Visita Lima closing at 18:00 and free admission, and recent guides a paid ticket. Plan to arrive before 17:00 and to have the means to pay. The opening hours for Santo Domingo and the Casa de la Literatura come from the same municipal website (Visita Lima).

The other churches, free to enter

According to the city council’s website, these four churches can be visited freely during opening hours (Visita Lima). They are places of worship: go in quietly and avoid visiting during Mass.

The Christ of Las Nazarenas is the Señor de los Milagros, followed every October by Lima’s great processions. See festivals and calendar.

Historic houses and museums in the centre

Again according to the city council’s website (Visita Lima):

Opening hours sometimes change without notice: check the day before for the place that matters most to you.

The Barrio Chino and the central market

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Peru in 1849, to work on the coastal haciendas. By 1854, many of them lived around Calle Capón, opposite today’s central market. The neighbourhood, with its arch donated by the Chinese community and inaugurated in 1971, its associations and its shops, is the birthplace of chifa, a cuisine born of the meeting between Cantonese recipes and Peruvian produce, now found throughout the country. Having lunch there is part of a visit to the centre.

Eating in the centre. Besides the chifas of the Barrio Chino, the centre keeps some long-standing addresses, such as the sanguchería El Chinito, founded in 1960, for a chicharrón sandwich. The set lunch menú, served in the small restaurants of the shopping streets, remains the simplest option. See where to eat in Lima.

Coming and going

From Miraflores or Barranco, the Metropolitano drops you at the Jirón de la Unión, Colmena or Estación Central stations. Come in the morning on a weekday: the churches and convents open, the streets are lively and the light lets you see the façades properly. The FDFA recommends particular caution in the centre after dark; leave in the late afternoon, or by booked taxi if you are staying for dinner.