I’m no architectural expert, so having found varied opinions on the web as to whether Cusco’s Cathedral is Baroque or Renaissance, I leave it to you to decide.
Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption, Cusco
Gold-covered Altar in Cusco Cathedral
There are also various declarations of when it was started, but Kelly Donahue-Wallace gives 1560 in her book on the Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin America, 1521-1821. Although heavily damaged in the 1650 earthquake, it was finally completed in 1654. The elaborate facade was designed as it neared completion in 1649.
The first clergy to arrive in Peru with Pizarro were Dominicans. Cusco’s first church was completed in 1539–El Triunfo.
El Triunfo. The roof-line niche was curiously empty during my visit. Presumably, its contents were off being restored or copied.
La Compañía de Jesús
One of the reasons it took almost one hundred years to complete the cathedral was its size. In the following photograph, it is the building with the multi-mounded roof. The church with the dome is La Compañía.
Cusco Cathedral from Above
There are, of course, many other far-less-elaborate churches in Cusco.
