Basilica of San Francisco
Mestizo baroque church and Franciscan convent on Plaza San Francisco, open as a museum.
Franciscans settled on this site in 1548, but their first church collapsed under snow in 1610. The present basilica was begun in 1743 and finished about 1790, built of carved sandstone from nearby quarries. Its portal is one of the fullest statements of the mestizo baroque of the Andes, with columns wrapped in vines, masks, pumas, sirens and pine cones that mix Christian iconography with Andean motifs. The bell tower beside it was added in the early twentieth century.
The convent behind the church opened to visitors in 2005 as the San Francisco Museum and Cultural Centre. A route of some forty spaces leads through cloisters, friars' cells, the refectory, the crypt, the orchard and the upper choir with its carved stalls, ending on roof walkways that overlook the plaza and the Illimani. The collection gathers colonial painting and sculpture, silver, vestments and books from the convent's library. Concerts and temporary exhibitions are held in the cloisters.
Highlights
- Mestizo baroque stone portal carved between 1743 and 1790
- Convent cloisters, cells, refectory and crypt on the museum route
- Upper choir with carved stalls and a colonial organ
- Roof walkways with views over Plaza San Francisco
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