San Franciso convent

The Church of San Franciso is huge. It was built in the 16th century. Part of it was destroyed during the various earthquakes but they were restored. Right now there are 50 monks living there and they are separated from the part of the church available for visitors. The main nave is magnificent. It contains amazing tiles from Spain and wood carvings from wood brought from Nicaragua. But what makes this church so special to me are the catacumbs and the library. The catacums contains remains of skeletons of about 25,000 people. Since Lima was founded until 1800s people were "buried" in catacumbs below churches, so that they would be closer to God. From what I remember, in Europe only priests and dignitaries were burried in churches and the common people were burried in the cementaries. However, in Lima every body was put into a kind od well 4 meters deep. Bodies were piled on top of each other, separated by lime and earth to prevent spread of diseases. What mostly remains of them now are sculls and femurs because they are the strongest bones in the body. We walked and walked in these catacumbs - I have never seen so many bones in my life. And so close. Everywhere there was this musky smell... I felt as if I was trasported in time to medieval times... The library is equaly interesting. It contains 25,000 of volumes brought by the Franciscan monks from Europe. Some were copied by them. Have you seen the movie The Name of the Rose? Well, the library looks exactly like the one in the movie. There are skylights in the celeing because candles were not permitted for fear of fire. The walls are stocked with rows and rows of books... there are two winding staircases leading to the gallery where there are still more books... It is an amazing feeling to be walking so close to these works or art, so old. It`s unbelievable that they still exist...

I have also visited the Cathedral which was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizzaro (my Polish friends: do you remember this great book Krolestwo zlotych lez o podbiciu Inkow przez konkwistadorow?) and it is a replica of the cathedral in Sevilla in Spain. Pizzarro´s tomb is inside the church. Its interior is very beautiful as well. It´s amazing what people are able to create to celebrate their deity... and how much work they had to do to support all these monks, feed, cloth and lounder them... And how much work on the part of the common people was done to erect the building. What comes to my mind is the building of the cathedral in Jose Saramago`s book Balthasar and Blimunda.