Plaza de Armas & Plaza San Martín

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The presidential palace, cathedral and municipal government buildings surround the Plaza de Armas.

The huge baroque façade of the Palacio del Gobierno, on the north side of Plaza de Armas, was completed in 1938. The official residence of the current President of the Republic, Alberto Fujimori, is at the back, under heavy guard.

The Catedral was designed by architect Francisco Becerra, who modelled it after the cathedral of Jaén, in Spain. Its enormous, ostentatious silhouette, distinguished by its huge twin towers, soars up into the sky on the east side of Plaza de Armas. Though it was consecrated in 1645, its architecture features a mixture of relatively modern styles, since it has been damaged repeatedly by earthquakes. In fact, just over a century after its inauguration, the cathedral was largely destroyed by Lima's first major earthquake. Its interior with three naves and a whole series of small side chapels is extremely austere. The first chapel on the right contains the remains of Francisco Pizarro himself.

The Archiepiscopal Palace, right next to the cathedral, is sure to catch your eye. Its magnificent openwork balcony is worth a closer look, since it is made up of nearly 5,000 pieces of Nicaraguan cedar, held together without a single nail.

Plaza de Armas is linked to Plaza San Martín by the narrow, crowded Jirón de la Unión. Plaza San Martín was built in 1921, some 100 years after General San Martín's declaration of independence. A bust of the general gazes at passersby from atop a column in the centre of the square, which is surrounded by neoclassical buildings.

The Iglesia de San Francisco was designed by the Portuguese architect Constantino de Vasconcellos, except for the side portal, which is the work of Manuel de Escobar. Begun at the end of the 16th century and completed in the mid-17th, this church was one of the few to survive the earthquakes of 1687 and 1746. This church is nonetheless one of the city's finest examples of 17th-century architecture and contains a number of ornately worked retables and paintings dating from colonial times. The galleries of the monastery, built in the 17th century, are decorated with azulejos. Most fascinating of all, however, are the gloomy catacombs that make up the crypt. Discovered in 1951, these passages are believed to contain the bones of some 70,000 people. Not for the claustrophobic! We strongly recommend taking the guided tour, which lasts about 45 minutes and will give you a good overview of the history and architecture of the church.