Plaza San Martín

In front of you is Lima's most republican square. If the Plaza Mayor was born with the Spanish city in 1535, this one was built to celebrate the very opposite: one hundred years of Peruvian independence.

1A plot with a past

The church and hospital of San Juan de Dios once stood here, and from the mid-19th century two railway stations. When they were demolished between 1911 and 1918, a large open space appeared on the edge of the old city. President Augusto B. Leguía inaugurated the square on 27 July 1921, in the middle of the centenary celebrations. The layout, gardens and street furniture were designed by the Spanish architect Manuel Piqueras Cotolí.

2The Liberator in bronze

The central monument won a competition and is the work of the Valencian sculptor Mariano Benlliure. It shows General José de San Martín crossing the Andes on horseback, the campaign that brought him to Peru, where he proclaimed independence in 1821.

European-looking buildings rose around it: the Teatro Colón in 1914, the Gran Hotel Bolívar, opened in 1924, and the Club Nacional in 1929. Ever since, the square has been the natural stage for Peru's great political protests, from 1987 to 2020.

The story goes that the figure of the Motherland wears a small llama, the Andean animal, on her head because the commission asked for a “llama votiva”, a votive flame. In Spanish, llama means both. The anecdote is endlessly repeated, but no document confirms it.

3What to look for

• The Motherland, the female figure on the pedestal: look for the little animal on her crown.
• The arcades around the square, with their regular rhythm of arches, designed as a single ensemble.
• The Gran Hotel Bolívar, the city's first great modern hotel.