The Cathedral of Cusco

The Cathedral is located on the northeast side of the Plaza de Armas. Construction commenced in 1559 and it took almost a hundred years to complete the work. It is built on the foundations of the Inca Viracocha´s Palace (Viracocha was the father of Pachacutec) in the shape of a Latin cross. The Cathedral contains one of the city's greatest collections of colonial art with nearly 400 colonial paintings including ´The Last Supper" by Marcos Zapata which depicts Christ and the Apostles having a guinea pig for supper and a glass of chicha! Ten smaller chapels surround the nave. The Chapel of El Señor de los Temblores (The Lord of the Earthquakes) and the Chapel of Immaculate Conception are worth a look.

Santo Domingo Church and Koricancha (the Temple of the Sun)

The Santo Domingo Church was built in the 17th century on the foundations of the Inca Temple of the Sun (or Koricancha). The Church was nearly destroyed by earthquakes twice, but due to the spectacular construction of the Inca walls it sustained minimal damage. The uninspiring Baroque decoration of Santo Domingo contrasts poorly to the superbly crafted Inca masonry, and much of the cloister has been gutted to reveal four of the original chambers of the great Inca Temple (Koricancha).

Some of the finest Inca stonework that one can see in all of the old Inca Empire is the curved wall beneath the West End of the Church. It is said that during Inca times the walls of the Koricancha (Quechua for ´Golden Courtyard´) were lined with about 700 solid-gold sheets each weighing about two kilos. This is where life-size gold and silver replicas of corn were ceremonially ´planted´ in agricultural rituals. Also reported were solid-gold treasures such as altars, llamas and babies. All that remains today of this splendor is the stonework - the conquistadors took the rest, which was melted down, and nothing survives.

The first conquistadors reported the existence of a "Golden Sun Disc" which was considered a replica of the sun and considered the holiest religious symbol in the empire. This solid golden disc was larger than a human being and before the main party of Spaniards arrived, it mysteriously disappeared. Today, the Golden Sun Disc remains lost. In Inca times the disc was positioned to catch the morning sun and to throw its rays into the gold-lined temple. It filled the temple with bright light and illuminated the mummies of the dead Inca rulers, who were seated in niches along the walls.

The entire temple complex was also an observatory, from which priests monitored major celestial activities. Every summer solstice, the sunrays shine directly into a niche - the tabernacle - in which only the Inca was permitted to sit. Along with the main temple dedicated to the Sun, there were other temples dedicated to the Moon, Venus, the Thunder and Lightning and the Rainbow.