Basilica of Santo Domingo

Look up at the tower: at about 46 metres, it is one of the tallest in the centre. The present one was designed in 1766, after the 1746 earthquake, and its design is attributed to Viceroy Manuel de Amat. But Santo Domingo's most revered treasures are inside.

1A university and three saints

The Dominicans came with the conquistadors and settled here from the city's founding. In this monastery's chapter house the University of San Marcos, the oldest in the Americas, began in 1551.

The basilica keeps the relics of three Peruvian saints: Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Martin de Porres and Saint John Macías. In a side altar, reliquaries hold the skulls of Saint Rose and Saint Martin.

2The friar with the broom

Martin de Porres was born in Lima in 1579, the son of a Spanish gentleman and a free woman of African descent. He entered this monastery as a donado, the humblest rank, and devoted himself to healing the sick without distinction. He died in 1639 and was canonised in 1962, the first saint of mixed race from the Americas.

Tradition credits him with extraordinary gifts: being in two places at once, passing through locked doors and getting a dog, a cat and a mouse to eat from the same bowl. These are stories from his beatification process and popular devotion, not verifiable facts.

3What to look for

• The tower, with its octagonal base and spire.
• The side doorway facing the little square.
• The brooms in the hands of statues of Saint Martin: it's his attribute.