Peru Guide
Cusco
The Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus
Address: Plaza de Armas
Opening time: Mon– Sat 11am– noon & 3–5pm
Price: Free
Looking downhill from the centre of the plaza, the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus dominates the Cusco skyline. First built over the foundations of Amara Cancha – originally Huayna Capac's Palace of the Serpents – in the late 1570s, it was resurrected over fifteen years after the earthquake of 1650, which largely destroyed the original version, itself constructed in a Latin cross shape with two belfries. The interior is cool and dark, with a grand gold-leaf altarpiece; a fine wooden pulpit displaying a relief of Christ, high vaulting and numerous paintings of the Cusqueña school; and a transept ending in a stylish Baroque cupola. The guilded altarpieces are made of fine cedar wood and the church contains interesting oil paintings of the Peruvian Princess Isabel Ñusta. Its most impressive features, though, are the two majestic towers of the main facade, a superb example of Spanish colonial Baroque design which has often been described in more glowing terms than the Cathedral itself. On the right-hand side of the church, the Lourdes Chapel, restored in 1894, is used mostly as an exhibition centre for local crafts.