Peru Guide
Arequipa
Monasterio de La Recoleta
Opening time: Mon– Sat 9am– noon & 3–5pm
Price: $1.80
Telephone: 054/270996
convento-la-recoleta@terra.comWhile exhibiting fine architecture, it's the archaeology and natural history museums which really draws people to the Monasterio de La Recoleta, located on the western side of the Río Chili, which runs its generally torrential course through Arequipa from Selva Alegre directly south, dividing the old heart of the city from what has become a more modern downtown sector including Yanahuara and Cayma. La Recoleta is a large Franciscan monastery standing conspicuously on its own on Callejón de la Recoleta, Ronda Recoleta 117, just ten to fifteen minutes' walk east of the Plaza de Armas. The stunning major and minor cloisters were built in 1651; in 1869 it was converted to an Apostolic Mission school administered by the Barefoot Franciscans. The museums here have been open to the public since 1978, housing two rooms of pre-Columbian artefacts including textiles and ceramics, an Amazon room showing artefacts collected over the years from jungle Indian tribes and examples of forest flora and fauna, plus a religious and modern art gallery displaying both Cusqueña and Arequipena classical works, plus a renowned historic library with some 25,000 sixteenth- and seventeenth-century volumes.