Arequipa
We have now left the beautiful city of Arequipa behind. As noted previously, Arequipa is surrounded by towering mountains and volcanoes.
Here is a view of the Monastery of Santa Catalina with mountains in the background.
And the looming volcano of El Misti:
The two main sights to see are the museum which houses Juanita, the ice mummy and the Convent of Santa Catalina.
Juanita was a young girl of around 14 years of age who was sacrificed by the Incas in the 1400s and whose almost perfectly preserved mummified body was found in 1995. It is on display in a museum in Arequipa. No photos allowed, so if you want to see pictures, you have to check out this website and click on the link for La Momia Juanita. If you want to read more about her, I could only find good information in Spanish, like this article.
Juanita:
The other main sight to see is the Monastery (actually a convent) of Santa Catalina, which was founded in 1580 and was shut to the outside world until 1970. It has a fascinating history. The Lonely Planet guidebook for Peru has a great writeup about the monastery. Unfortunately I can´t get the article from the LP website, but fortunately someone has lifted it almost word for word and put the article on Wikipedia. You can read all about it here.
Strangely, the history on the convent´s own website differs markedly from what is in LP and the history the convent itself displays on site. The convent was filled with the daughters (usually the second daughter) of rich Spanish families who could provide generous dowries. The nuns lived in luxury for centuries, most of them employing slaves. In 1871 the pope finally decided to end the lavishness of this convent and sent a stern woman to clean things up. In 1970, the mayor of Arequipa forced the convent to open up to the outside world and to tourism.
Strangely, the official website says that "the ladies who entered as nuns were Creole, half-bred and even daughters of curacas (Indian chieftains). In 1964 the first Spanish nuns entered." I´m still very confused why the website says that, as displays at the convent itself shows that it was a convent for rich Spanish girls for centuries.
Whatever the true story, the convent is massive, taking up a very large city block. You can tell that the nuns lived very well indeed. The site takes a few hours to explore properly and some parts of it are quite beautiful.
Here is a view of the Monastery of Santa Catalina with mountains in the background.
And the looming volcano of El Misti:
The two main sights to see are the museum which houses Juanita, the ice mummy and the Convent of Santa Catalina.
Juanita was a young girl of around 14 years of age who was sacrificed by the Incas in the 1400s and whose almost perfectly preserved mummified body was found in 1995. It is on display in a museum in Arequipa. No photos allowed, so if you want to see pictures, you have to check out this website and click on the link for La Momia Juanita. If you want to read more about her, I could only find good information in Spanish, like this article.
Juanita:
The other main sight to see is the Monastery (actually a convent) of Santa Catalina, which was founded in 1580 and was shut to the outside world until 1970. It has a fascinating history. The Lonely Planet guidebook for Peru has a great writeup about the monastery. Unfortunately I can´t get the article from the LP website, but fortunately someone has lifted it almost word for word and put the article on Wikipedia. You can read all about it here.
Strangely, the history on the convent´s own website differs markedly from what is in LP and the history the convent itself displays on site. The convent was filled with the daughters (usually the second daughter) of rich Spanish families who could provide generous dowries. The nuns lived in luxury for centuries, most of them employing slaves. In 1871 the pope finally decided to end the lavishness of this convent and sent a stern woman to clean things up. In 1970, the mayor of Arequipa forced the convent to open up to the outside world and to tourism.
Strangely, the official website says that "the ladies who entered as nuns were Creole, half-bred and even daughters of curacas (Indian chieftains). In 1964 the first Spanish nuns entered." I´m still very confused why the website says that, as displays at the convent itself shows that it was a convent for rich Spanish girls for centuries.
Whatever the true story, the convent is massive, taking up a very large city block. You can tell that the nuns lived very well indeed. The site takes a few hours to explore properly and some parts of it are quite beautiful.
posted by Kevin at 6/03/2007 11:14:00 PM
2 Comments:
This convent reminds me of:
Convent of the Royal Barefoot Nuns (Monasterios de las Descalzas Reales)
in Madrid, Spain. Restricted to ladies of royalty. The church really knew how to get rich in those days.
Yes, I think there were quite a few places for the wealthy to put their spinstered daughters! Good to know there are more options for women these days...
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