This was supposed to show up with the last picture post but here it is:
The Iglesia/Convento de San Francisco (Church/Monastery of Saint Francis) is the most visited and perhaps most important church in Lima. The yellow church was completed in 1674, and it definitely fits the “Baroque” style of architecture that is scattered across the city and in the center. Andrea and I went here one day after going to the hospital because it was close to the center. There we got a 45 minute guided tour in English that explained to us many interesting features of the monastery. It was really interesting to see the Spanish and especially Arabic influences of the church. For example there was this gorgeous ceiling with all these wooden geometrical patterns that it held together merely by PRESSURE, no nails or anything. Sadly some parts were ruined by the seismic climate of Peru. This earthquake climate also caused the walls to bend so they weren’t straight but the wall paintings and general courtyard were still beautiful.
The convent’s library is world-renowned. Its an immense collection of antique texts, some dating back to the 17th century, brought to Peru by Spanish Conquistadors. There were some really big books open that were choir/music books for the monks. The tour furthermore showed us cloisters, plazas, the main dining room, and of course the church itself!
But overall, this franciscan monastery is famous for its gloomy catacombs - where over 25,000 full bodies were buried (60,000 or so bones). We followed our tour guide in the dim lit, low ceiling underground rooms, seeing the rows of femurs, skulls etc. These were the first public cemeteries in Lima so thats where a lot of poorer people buried their relatives. When people died they buried them in these deep graves that fit 10 or so bodies and fit sand in between so that disease and things would not spread among the bodies. Then when the flesh disintegrated, they actually removed the bodies and put them all in a common grave. Later on when archeologists were evaluating the catacombs they just separated all the skeletons: put all the pelvic bones in one pile, all the shin bones in another area and so on. I was tempted to scare Andrea by jumping out behind a column but thought that I better not! Anyways these catacombs are said to connect to other catacombs beneath the cathedral and even to other area churches. It was pretty creepy but still amazing to see!
After the tour we went outside and just played with the doves a bit, chasing them around! It was definitely a unique excursion.
