Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
La Catedral de Lima
ROBERT HARDING WORLD IMAGERY/GETTY IMAGES ©
By the cathedral's main door is a
mosaic-covered chapel
where the battered remains of
Pizarro have long lain. The authenticity of these came into question in 1977, after workers
cleaning out a crypt discovered a sealed lead box, containing a skull, that bore the inscrip-
tion, 'Here is the head of the gentleman Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, who found and
conquered the kingdom of Peru…' After a battery of tests in the 1980s, a US forensic sci-
entist concluded that the body previously on display was of an unknown official and that
the brutally stabbed and headless body from the crypt was Pizarro's. Head and body were
reunited and transferred to the chapel, where you can also see the inscribed lead box.
