Look at the stone portal in front of you, with its yellow towers and its cloud of pigeons. It is one of the great jewels of Lima Baroque. But what impresses visitors most isn't on show: it's under your feet.

1A church reborn

The Franciscans settled here in the city's earliest years. The earthquake of 1655 destroyed their church, and on 8 May 1657 the viceroy, Count of Alba de Liste, laid the first stone of the present one, designed by the Portuguese Constantino de Vasconcelos with the Lima master builder Manuel de Escobar. It opened in 1672. Its library holds thousands of old volumes, including some of the first books printed in the Americas.

2The city's cemetery

In viceregal times, limeños were buried inside churches. Under San Francisco, galleries with brick and lime walls were dug out and used as a burial ground for brotherhoods and parishioners until the early 19th century, when the Presbítero Maestro General Cemetery opened in 1808 and church burials were banned.

The crypts were forgotten and are usually said to have been rediscovered in 1943. Estimates speak of up to 25,000 people. Today the bones are sorted by type: skulls with skulls, femurs with femurs, and in one pit arranged in concentric circles.

People say tunnels once linked the catacombs with the cathedral and other churches. It's a widespread belief, but there's no archaeological evidence for this secret network.

3What to look for

  • The central portal, set between two towers of rusticated stone.
  • The twin towers, which have withstood several earthquakes.
  • The little square, one of the most photographed corners of Lima.
Skulls and bones arranged in the catacombs of the San Francisco monastery in Lima
The ossuaries beneath the monastery: the cemetery of colonial Lima.

Documented

The present church was begun in 1657 and opened in 1672; its crypts served as a cemetery until the early 19th century.

Oral tradition

The secret tunnels said to connect the catacombs with the cathedral and other churches belong to urban legend, with no archaeological proof.

Sources and credits

Convento de San Francisco de Lima, museum and catacombs; Ministry of Culture of Peru, National Cultural Heritage declaration; Antonio San Cristóbal, «La iglesia de San Francisco de Lima».

Photos:

  • The yellow, twin-towered church of San Francisco in Lima, with its square full of pigeons: BrunoLocatelli, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Skulls and bones arranged in the catacombs of the San Francisco monastery in Lima: Sucram Yef, CC BY 2.0.

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