OLD TRUJILLO

Allow at least a half day on foot for seeing Trujillo’s colonial core, which offers a dense cluster of well-preserved homes and churches to the north of Plaza de Armas. Start at the northern edge of town at Avenida España, the congested beltway that was once a six-meter wall built between 1680 and 1685 to ward off pirate attacks. The crumbling military wall was knocked down in 1942, but a section has been preserved at the intersection of España and Estete. The waterworks for colonial Trujillo can be seen a few blocks away at Plazuela El Recreo (Estete and Pizarro), where the Spaniards extended Moche and Chimú irrigation channels in order to deliver river water to the aristocratic households of the city. The plazuela is graced with an elegant fountain, carved from local marble in 1750, and then relocated from the Plaza de Armas in 1828.

Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen (Colón y Bolivar, 7 a.m.–8 p.m. daily, free), a Carmelite monastery founded in 1724, is home to a small group of nuns and Trujillo’s best collection of colonial art. It has somehow withstood the earthquakes that have rocked Trujillo and houses the city’s best-preserved gilded baroque altar. Its pinacoteca, or painting gallery, contains 150 colonial works, including The Last Supper by Otto Van Veen (Peter Paul Rubens’ mentor).

If you have extra time, the Museo Arqueológico (Junin 682, 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m. Monday, 9:15 a.m.–1 p.m. and 3:30–7 p.m. Tues.–Fri, and 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. weekends, $2) is nearby and traces Peruvian history from 12,000 b.c. to the arrival of the Spaniards. Because the University of Trujillo is directing the excavations at the Huaca de la Luna, the museum contains excellent artifacts from that site, including gold objects found there in 1996. A peek inside the courtyard will give you a sense of the grandeur of the Palacio Itúrregui (Pizarro 688), which houses the Club Central and is not open to the public. The house was built in 1855 in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style by General Juan Manuel Itúrregui and has three plazas ringed with ornate columns.

Nearby is the headquarters of the APRA political party (Pizarro 672). Another nearby center of dissent is the Casa de la Emancipación (Pizarro 610, 9:15 a.m.–1 p.m. and 4–6:30 p.m. Mon.–Fri., 9:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Saturday, free), a beautifully restored republican home where Marquis Torre Tagle signed a document declaring Trujillo’s independence from Spain in 1820—long before the libertadores arrived. The house also contains a small exhibit on César Vallejo, Peru’s most famed poet, who was born in the nearby mountain town of Santiago de Chuco. Another block south on Pizarro is the Iglesia La Merced (Pizarro 550, 8 a.m.–noon and 5–8 p.m. Mon.–Sat.). This 17th-century church was built by Portuguese artist Alonso de las Nieves and has an impressive rococo organ and cupola. When the order lacked the money for a traditional wood and gold-plated altar, they instead opted to paint one onto the wall in 1755—the only painted altar in the city. Near the altar is an interesting juxtaposition of the virgins that most embody the old and new worlds: Mexico’s brown-skinned and dark-haired Virgen de Guadalupe and Spain’s blue-eyed and blond Virgen Fátima.

The 17th-century Casa del Mariscal de Orbegoso (Orbegoso 503, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. and 4–8 p.m. Mon.–Sat.) is a showcase for the features of colonial homes: a plaza of canto rodado (river stones), brick and lime floors, simple ceilings, and enormous, sparsely decorated rooms. This was the home of José Luis Orbegoso, who led troops during the War of Independence and served as president of Peru from 1833 to 1838.

The Plaza de Armas is where Martin de Estete began to lay out the city grid in December 1534, in preparation for Francisco Pizarro’s arrival the next year. At the center of the plaza is the Monumento de La Libertad, and the face of the winged figure holding a torch closely resembles that of Simón Bolívar. On the other side of the plaza is the Casa Bracamonte, occupied by the Ministerio de Salud and not open for tours. Its most famous features are a balcón de celosia (a wooden balcony from which women could see but not be seen) and finely wrought iron windows, an art form that flourished in 18th-century Trujillo.

Compare the colonial style of Casa Orbegoso with the more elegant Republican design of La Casa Urquiaga (Pizarro 446, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Mon.–Fri,, 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m. weekends, free with guide). This house is one of the best-preserved and most elegant republican houses in Trujillo. The original house was destroyed in the 1619 earthquake and was remodeled at least twice, mostly recently in the mid-19th century. Simón Bolívar lived here during his military campaign against Spain, and many of his personal possessions remain in the house, including his mahogany writing desk and personal china.

Construction of Trujillo’s Catedral (Plaza de Armas, 7:50–9:30 a.m. and 5:30–8:30 p.m. daily, free) began in 1610 but had to begin anew after the devastating earthquake on February 14, 1619, which destroyed the city and prompted townspeople to adopt Saint Valentine as their patron. A more recent earthquake, in 1970, partially destroyed the main altar, which contains an image of Saint Valentine, among other saints. The cathedral’s museum (9 a.m.–1 p.m. and 4–7 p.m. Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Saturday, $1.25 admission) contains the shadowy paintings of the baroque Quito School as well as access to catacombs.