Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
center of the plaza. At the base, don't miss the bronze rendering of Madre Patria, the sym-
bolic mother of Peru. Commissioned in Spain under instruction to give the good lady a
crown of flames, nobody thought to iron out the double meaning of the word flame in
Spanish
(llama),
so the hapless craftsmen duly placed a delightful little llama on her head.
The once-stately
Gran Hotel Bolívar
(
Click here
)
, built in the 1920s, presides over
the square from the northwest.
Museo Andrés del Castillo
( 433-2831;
www.madc.com.pe
; Jirón de la Unión 1030; admission S10; 9am-6pm,
closed Tue)
Housed in a pristine 19th-century mansion with Spanish-tile floors, this
worthwhile new private museum showcases a vast collection of minerals, as well as
breathtakingly displayed Nazca textiles and Chancay pottery, including some remarkable
representations of Peruvian hairless dogs.
MUSEUM
Panteón de los Próceres
( 427-8157; Parque Universitario; 10am-5pm)
Located inside a little-visited 18th-
century Jesuit church, this monument pays tribute to Peruvian battle heroes, from Túpac
Amaru II, the 18th-century Quechua leader who led an indigenous uprising, to José de
San Martín, who led the country to independence in the 1820s. The mosaic-lined crypt
holds the remains of Ramón Castilla, the four-time Peruvian president who saw the coun-
try through a good piece of the 19th century. The impressive baroque altar, carved out of
Ecuadorean mahogany, dates to the 1500s.
MONUMENT
Museo de la Cultura Peruana
(Museum of Peruvian Culture; 423-5892;
ht-
tp://museodelacultura.perucultural.org.pe
;
Alfonso Ugarte 650; admission S3.60;
10am-5pm Tue-Fri, 10am-2pm Sat)
About half-a-dozen blocks west of the Plaza San
Martín, on a traffic-choked thoroughfare, resides the Museo de la Cultura Peruana, a re-
pository of Peruvian folk art. The collection, consisting of elaborate
retablos
(religious di-
oramas) from Ayacucho, historic pottery from Puno and works in feathers from the
Amazon, is displayed in a building whose exterior facade is inspired by pre-Columbian
architecture.
MUSEUM
