Peru: Lima – Basilica Catedral de Lima
The grandest building in the Plaza de Armas is the imposing white Lima Cathedral. It took over 100 years to built, being founded all the way back in 1535 and was modeled on the Seville Cathedral in Spain. It was twice almost completely destroyed in earthquakes but quickly rebuilt. It has a lot of bizarre stuff in it! First, there is the complete dis-assembled skeleton of Francisco Pizarro, the founder of Lima and the conquistador who led Spain to defeat the Inca Empire (he killed Atahualpa, Inca’s last emperor). The bones were discovered in a box in some forgotten crypt underneath the Cathedral in 1977 – now they are on full display in a grand mosaic-covered chapel. Then, there are 17 other chapels with the weirdest and creepiest wooden doll-like sculptures of various religious figures and Biblical scenes, including many Jesuses (all seriously tortured, beaten up, and bleeding). And finally, there are many crypts underneath the Cathedral, all musty and moldy and filled with graves and skulls and bones and probably various medieval diseases. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
