Peru: Lima – Basílica y Convento de San Francisco

Basílica y Convento de San Francisco is another UNESCO site in historic Lima center. It’s a church, a monastery, a library, and a massive set of underground catacombs. The church and the monastery were built in 1673 and unlike many other building in Lima survived multiple earthquakes intact. The vaults and ceilings have Moorish elements typical for southern Spain at the time, while the chapels are lavished with gold and silver and richly decorated. The library is one of the richest on the world with over 25,000 books, many predating the conquest of Peru. And finally the catacombs (unfortunately no photography allowed but you go on quite an extensive crawl through it)! The catacombs served as the graveyard of Lima until 1808 and its estimated that over 30,000 bodies are buried here – a lot of skulls, femurs, skeletons greet you as you walk through moldy underground passages. If the dead ever rise up – this is not the place to be….
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