The Rough Guide to Peru by Dilwyn Jenkins

Author:Dilwyn Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel
Publisher: Rough Guides
Published: 2011-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

The Town

Huancavelica’s main sights are around the Plaza de Armas, where you’ll find the two-storey Cabildo buildings, the Capilla de la Virgen de los Dolores and, at the heart of the square, a stone pileta in octagonal form incorporating two waterspouts, each portraying an Indian face, water gushing from their respective mouths. Also on the plaza, the seventeenth-century Iglesia Catedral de San Antonio (Mon–Sat 7am–5.15pm, or for Mass on Sun at 5.30am, 8am, 9.30am and 5.15pm), features a fine altar and pulpit and some excellent paintings. Construction started in 1673, and it took a hundred years to complete. These days it’s home to the sacred image of the city’s patron – Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes. The elaborate gold-leaf altar was carved from wood, and the silver sheets on display beside it are from the Cusqueña and Huamanguina schools. There is a distinct Baroque style in the volcanic stone craftsmanship, and religious paintings decorate the interior representing Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

There are a handful of other notable churches, two of which – San Francisco and Santo Domingo – are connected to the Cathedral by an underground passage. San Francisco, built on the Plaza Bolognesi in 1774 by the Franciscan Order has just about survived several major earthquakes; it has a single nave and some fancy Baroque and Churrigueresque retablos of wood and gold leaf. During the nineteenth-century war with Chile, this church was commandeered by the Peruvian army, who sold its fine collection of musical instruments to finance the war effort. Today, the steps of San Francisco are the site, on December 24 and 25, of the awe-inspiring, traditional scissor-dancing performances (danza tijera) generally done by men wielding two long machete-like swords apiece.

Santo Domingo is a church and convent complex, founded in 1601, just thirty years after the city was established. The entrance is made from red stone brought from the Pucarumi quarry. Inside there are fine paintings, brought from Rome, of the Virgen del Rosario and the patron St Dominic as well as a fine Baroque altar with some gold-leaf adornment; in the sacristy you can find a painting dating from 1666 representing El Señor de la Sentencia y Resurrección. The town is also home to the small Museo Regional Daniel Hernández Morillo, in the Instituto Nacional de Cultura building on Plazuela San Juan de Dios, one block from the Plaza de Armas (067/753420, Mon–Fri 9am–1pm & 4–6pm; 80¢), containing archaeological exhibits, fossils from the Tertiary period, petrified marine species and displays on pre-Inca Andean cultures. As well as the archaeology and anthropology section, the museum comprises a Museo de Arte Popular, showing paintings and objects depicting local culture. These apart, there’s little else of interest here, except the Sunday market, which sells local food, jungle fruits and carved gourds. A couple of pleasant walks from town will bring you to the natural hot springs on the hill north of the river, or the weaving cooperative, 4km away at Totoral.

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