Visually striking stone church containing retablos (ornamental religious dioramas) and an attractive adjoining convent dating to the 17th century. Located opposite the market, it boasts the city's largest bell, and several escuela cuzqueña (Cuzco school) and escuela ayacuchana works of art.
Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis
Ayacucho
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.24 MILES
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…
0.98 MILES
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…
0.2 MILES
Displays popular art covering the ayacucheño (natives of Ayacucho) spectrum – silverwork, rug- and tapestry-weaving, stone and woodcarvings, ceramics …
7.32 MILES
Sprawling for several kilometers along a cactus-forested roadside are the extensive ruins of Wari, the capital of the eponymous empire, which predated the…
Museo Arqueológico Hipólito Unanue
1.18 MILES
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…
Casa Museo Joaquín López Antay
0.44 MILES
This captivating little museum is really part art gallery and part an explanation of the process of retablo making. Retablos, ornamental, originally…
0.25 MILES
Most of Ayacucho's old mansions are now mainly political offices and can be visited, usually during business hours. These offices of the department of…
10.01 MILES
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…
Nearby Ayacucho attractions
0.08 MILES
A square of shops and restaurants tucked back from the pedestrian street, with a better quality of establishments than the similar Centro Turístico…
3. Iglesia de San Juan de Dios
0.08 MILES
One of Ayacucho's oldest churches, dating from the mid-16th century.
4. Templo y Monasterio de Santa Clara
0.1 MILES
Attracts thousands of pilgrims annually for a glimpse of the image of Jesus of Nazareth supposedly inside on one of the altars.
0.13 MILES
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.
6. Centro Turístico Cultural San Cristóbal
0.14 MILES
This remodeled colonial building's courtyard has been transformed into a hip little mall. Here you’ll find bars, restaurants and coffee shops, along with…
0.15 MILES
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…
8. Museo Andrés Avelino Cáceres
0.16 MILES
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…