Cusco: Incan Capital, Gringo Playground

Last week, we went to Peru. The first stop on the itinerary was Cusco, former heart of Incan civilization. As such, it was the political and economic centre of an empire that at its height may have encompassed some two million km² and twenty million inhabitants.

Today it is the heart of Peru’s tourist empire, a major stopover on the Gringo Trail. Though crowded and somewhat commercialized by the exposure (these kinds of pictures aren’t free, for instance) it is nonetheless a fascinating place to visit, a unique product of Incan, Spanish, and modern Peruvian influences.

Like nearby Machu Picchu, Cusco features brilliant examples of Incan architecture. Unlike Machu Picchu however, many of these examples are found underneath more recent buildings. Following their conquest of the city, the Spaniards often built on top of Incan stone foundations. Many of these brick and mortar buildings collapsed in the earthquakes that rocked the area in subsequent years, leaving the dry, uncemented Incan stonework intact. (Just goes to show that sometimes it’s not enough to build your house on a rock.)

Some of the best stonework in the city is found in, er, under the Iglesia Santo Domingo, a beautiful church and priory owned and operated by the Dominican Order.

Santo Domingo was built over the remains of an elaborate Incan temple complex that included Coricancha, the Temple of the Sun. Originally, the church incorporated the remains of Coricancha in its foundation; however, a major earthquake destroyed much of the church in 1950, revealing the temple walls which (surprise!) survived the temblor. After a heated debate, the church was rebuilt with the outer walls moved several metres inward, allowing visitors an unobstructed view of the ancient Incan masonry.

Within the church itself are other Incan remnants, including a number of temple buildings.

Interestingly, there’s also a reproduction of an gold-plated alter-piece used by the Spanish to translate Incan beliefs into Christianity. (I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of the translation, so you’ll have to trust me on this.)

Of course, Santo Domingo is not the only church in town. There main square alone features five different churches, including the impressive Cusco Cathedral.

As it happens, we were in Cusco on Good Friday, and encountered some of the community’s elaborate celebrations for the day. During the evening, we heard a brass band playing outside our hostel. When we went to check it out, we found ourselves in the midst of a parade. Several hundred Cusquenos (inhabitants of Cusco) were marching solemnly down the street, carrying a glass coffin containing a statue of a crucified Jesus, along a statue of the Virgin. It was nothing less than a wake — a wake for the Lord. As we walked along the streets, people came to their doors and balconies and threw flower petals on the coffin and statue. We paused at times to listen as attending priests read out passages from the Passion. The procession took hours, finally ending with a symbolic entombment within another church. It was a moving event, to say the least.

Happily, it was not our only brush with the “true” Cusco, the one beyond the tourist centre. For me, it was reassuring to know that, even in the heart of the Gringo Trail, the road less travelled was not so very far away.

I’ll leave off with a few more pictures of the many sides of Cusco.