Other sights in Cuzco
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Cusco Planetarium
Cusco Planetarium is a nifty way to learn more about the Inca worldview. It was the only culture in the world to define constellations of darkness as well as light, and studied astronomy seriously: some of Cuzco’s main streets are designed to align with the stars at certain times of year. Recommended before you go on a trek – you’ll feel clever pointing out the Black Llama to your fellow hikers. Reservations essential; price varies with group size, and includes pickup and drop-off.
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A
Museo Irq’i Yachay
More an art-and-craft exhibition than a museum, Museo Irq’i Yachay is the fascinating by-product of an NGO that seeks to give opportunities for cognitive development to kids in remote communities. Since the most isolated and neglected communities are also guardians of traditional culture, the result is an engrossing glimpse of Andean culture.
The kids paint what they know – animals, mountains, rivers, people – and incorporate the symbols of the weavings that surround them from birth: north is hope and future, red is love and revenge. Along with the art itself, there’s an impressive display of textiles. Accompanying interpretive information in Spanish and English explains…
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Cathedral
Started in 1559 and taking almost a hundred years to build, the cathedral squats on the site of Viracocha Inca’s palace and was built using blocks pilfered from the nearby Inca site of Sacsaywamán. The cathedral is joined with Iglesia del Triunfo (1536) to its right and Iglesia de Jesús María (1733) to the left. El Triunfo, Cuzco’s oldest church, houses a vault containing the remains of the famous Inca chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, who was born in Cuzco in 1539 and died in Córdoba, Spain, in 1616. His remains were returned in 1978 by King Juan Carlos of Spain. )
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Museo Histórico Regional
This eclectic museum is housed in the colonial Casa Garcilaso de la Vega, the house of the Inca-Spanish chronicler who now lies buried in the cathedral. The chronologically arranged collection begins with arrowheads from the Preceramic Period and continues with ceramics and jewelry of the Wari, Pukara and Inca cultures.
There is also a Nazca mummy, a few Inca weavings, some small gold ornaments and a strangely sinister scale model of the Plaza de Armas. A big, helpful chart in the courtyard outlines the timeline and characters of the escuela cuzqueña.
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C
Museo de Arte Popular
Winning entries in Cuzco’s annual Popular Art Competition are displayed in this engaging museum. This is where the artisans and artists of San Blas showcase their talents in styles ranging from high art to cheeky, offering a fascinating, humorous take on ordinary life amid the pomp and circumstance of a once-grandiose culture.
Small-scale ceramic models depict drunken debauchery in the picantería (local restaurant), torture in the dentist’s chair, carnage in the butcher shop, and even a caesarean section. There’s also a display of photographs, many by renowned local photographer Martín Chambi, of Cuzco from the 1900s to the 1950s, including striking images of the…
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Museo de Arte Religioso
Originally the palace of Inca Roca, the foundations of this museum were converted into a grand colonial residence and later became the archbishop’s palace. The beautiful mansion is now home to a religious-art collection notable for the accuracy of its period detail, and especially its insight into the interaction of indigenous peoples with the Spanish conquistadors.
There are also some impressive ceilings and colonial-style tile work that’s not original, having been replaced during the 1940s.
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Iglesia y Monasterio de Santa Catalina
This convent houses many colonial paintings of the escuela cuzqueña, as well as an impressive collection of vestments and other intricate embroidery. The baroque side chapel features dramatic friezes, and many life-sized (and sometimes startling) models of nuns praying, sewing and going about their lives. The convent also houses 13 real, live contemplative nuns.
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Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo
The small collection of contemporary Andean art on display at this museum in the municipality building is really one for the fans. Museo Quijote has a much better collection, putting a representative range of Peru’s contemporary artists on show, with interpretive information that puts art in context with history.
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Museo Quijote
In a new location housed inside a bank, this privately owned museum of contemporary art houses a diverse, thoughtful collection of painting and sculpture ranging from the folksy to the macabre. There’s good interpretive information about 20th-century Peruvian art history, some of it translated into English.
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Museo de Historia Natural
The university-run natural history museum houses a somewhat motley collection of stuffed local animals and birds and over 150 snakes from the Amazon. The entrance is hidden off the Plaza de Armas, to the right of Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús.
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Museo del Sitio de Qorikancha
There are sundry moth-bitten archaeological displays interpreting Inca and pre-Inca cultures at this small, mangy, underground archaeological museum, which is accessed off Av El Sol.
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Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
Built upon the palace of Huayna Cápac, the last Inca to rule an undivided, unconquered empire, the church was built by the Jesuits in 1571 and reconstructed after the 1650 earthquake.
The Jesuits planned to make it the most magnificent of Cuzco’s churches. The archbishop of Cuzco, however, complained that its splendor should not rival that of the cathedral, and the squabble grew to a point where Pope Paul III was called upon to arbitrate. His decision was in favor of the cathedral, but by the time word had reached Cuzco, La Compañía de Jesús was just about finished, complete with an incredible baroque facade and Peru’s biggest altar, all crowned by a soaring dome.
reviewed