Must-see attractions in Ayacucho

This spectacular 17th-century cathedral on the Plaza de Armas has a religious-art museum inside. The moody facade doesn’t quite prepare you for the…

Ayacucho’s most haunting museum, remembers the impact the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) had on Peru in the city that was most deeply affected by the…

Displays popular art covering the ayacucheño (natives of Ayacucho) spectrum – silverwork, rug- and tapestry-weaving, stone and woodcarvings, ceramics …

Sprawling for several kilometers along a cactus-forested roadside are the extensive ruins of Wari, the capital of the eponymous empire, which predated the…

This captivating little museum is really part art gallery and part an explanation of the process of retablo making. Retablos, ornamental, originally…

Officially a restaurant, this surreal Aladdin's Cave is more a museum of curios than anything else, for the owner is primarily a collector of magical…

Visually striking stone church containing retablos (ornamental religious dioramas) and an attractive adjoining convent dating to the 17th century. Located…

One of the prettiest plazas in the Central Andes, flanked by many gorgeous mansions, including the Prefectura. Ask at the tourist office for details on…

This former Inca stronghold was once considered the geographical center of the Inca empire. It was believed to have been a city constructed in the shape…

Wari ceramics make up most of the small exhibition here, along with relics from the region’s other various civilizations. The museum buildings are set in…

A huge monument and tiny museum mark the site of the Battle of Ayacucho (1824) above Quinua – a small pueblo (town) once famous for marking the end of…

This museum in the Casona Vivanco, a gorgeous 16th-century mansion, houses maps and military paraphernalia from the period of its namesake, a local man…

Quinua's wonderfully named Casa de la Capitulación (House of Capitulation) was where Spanish Royalist troops signed their surrender after the War of…

This church has two fine bell towers and, in the body of the structure supporting them, striking embossings and motifs. It sits on the site of its 1605…

A square of shops and restaurants tucked back from the pedestrian street, with a better quality of establishments than the similar Centro Turístico…

One of Ayacucho's most photogenic churches, dating from 1548. Purportedly built with the stone of a former Inca fortress, it contains some superb examples…

This mirador (lookout) offers fabulous views of Ayacucho, as well as decent restaurants. Taxis here charge S5, otherwise catch a bus from the Mercado…

This church, built in the mid-16th century, is full of colonial art and has one of Peru’s oldest convents attached, dating from the same period.

Attracts thousands of pilgrims annually for a glimpse of the image of Jesus of Nazareth supposedly inside on one of the altars.

This white two-towered church dating from 1716 has interesting floral flourishes near the cupolas of its bell towers.