La Compañía and its quarrel with the cathedral

Take a good look at the façade in front of you. It is so rich and so tall that, from many points in the square, it seems to compete head to head with the cathedral right next door. That is no accident: it is the origin of one of the most retold stories in Cusco.

1On top of the serpent palace

The Jesuits arrived in Cusco in the late 1560s and obtained this plot, the former Amarukancha, a palace attributed to Huayna Cápac. They built a first church, which the earthquake of 1650 left badly damaged. What you see is the later rebuilding, finished around 1668, with a design attributed to the Flemish Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Gilles, known here as Juan Bautista Egidiano.

2An appeal to the Pope

Tradition has it that the bishop of Cusco protested because the new Jesuit church threatened to outshine the cathedral. The dispute supposedly went all the way to Rome, and the Pope sided with the bishop. But by the time his answer had crossed the ocean, La Compañía was already finished.

A rivalry between Jesuits and bishop is plausible; the papal ruling that arrived too late is, above all, a good story.

Many versions name Paul III, but that Pope died in 1549, before the Jesuits ever reached Cusco. No known document confirms the episode.

3What to look for

• The two towers, with their clocks and belfries.
• The central portal, with columns and a great arch framing the window.
• The Inca stone base along the Calle Loreto side.