Well, as you may know the franciscan order was founded in 1209 in italy by saint francis

of assisi, but its history in Lima starst in the 16th century, this building began to build in
the year of 1546. It started as a small and humble temple, then with the help of its main
benefactor, the viceroy Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, this church began to expand.
Finally was inaugurated in 1672.

At this moment, we are in the waiting room, as you can see all this room is decorated
with tiles. These tiles were donated by a dealer named Jimenez Menacho. You can see
there, a painting which represents the immaculate conception. She is the patron of the
Franciscan Order. In the background, you will be able to see that painting, wich
represents Saint Francis of Assisi, when he is receiving the stigmatas. The same that
Jesus had when he was crucified as you can see in this sculpture of realistic style.

DOME:

At this time, we are in the main stairs. On the top, you can see this beautiful dome, which
was built in 1625 by Fray Miguel de Huerta. It is made with cedar Wood, brought from
Nicaragua. This is múdejar style, because it has arabic influence. In 1940, there was an
earthquake so the middle of the dome fell down. Its last restoration was in 1969 by Juan
de Dios Muñoz.

On the sides, you can see also two paintings, that show us saint Diego de Alcala. On the
left, you can see that he is preaching in the Canary Islands. And on the right, that paintig
shows to the royal family worshiping San Diego de Alcala´s body.

LIBRARY:

This library is of 17th century. This is the second more important of south America, the
first one is in Quito, Ecuador that also belongs to the Franciscan Order. Here we can find
approximately 25,000 books. And there are not only religions books, we can find differen
subjects, for example: History, Maths, biology, literature, theology, geography,
philosophy, music, etc. And they are written in different languages such as, latin,
because it was the main language of the Catholic Church. Other languages: spanish,
english, french, portuguese, italian, German, and some of them written in the native
languages of Perú such as Quechua and Aymara.

In the ceiling, you can see four skylights. Those skylights with the Windows allow the
entry of natural light, because in that time Lima did not have electric lighting.
You can also see about those symbols that represent the three vows of the Franciscan
order which are obedience, poverty and chastity.

CHOIR:

In front of you, we have two bigs books, called the choral books, which contain the
Gregorian songs written in latin. These books weigh between 20 to 25 kg. Because each
page was made in lambskin and the top was made of wood.

At the begining the Franciscans celebrated their masses here. The seats are distribuited
in two rows, 59 lowers seats and 71 higher seats, in total are 130 seats.

Underneath each seats we can see a mascaron that served as a support for the
franciscans during the masses, because the masses lasted for hours, and the
Franciscans had to be on their feet, and they got tired, that´s why they climbed the seats
and rested in these spaces.

Around we can see carved figures in high relief, representing the Franciscan saints.

Here in the middle of the room, we have a furniture that is a rotated choir lectern, that
was used to display the open choral books.

Organ: We appreciate a music organ made by the italian, Innocent Foglia in 1900.

PENITENTIARY:

This room was where the Franciscans performed penances or punishment in their
bodies. Actually, this room is dedicated to Saint Francisco Solano. This Saint was born
in Spain, but the Catholic Church considers him as a Peruvian saint because he spent
most of his life here. He always carried the rabel, predecessor of the violin to preach.

In front of us, we see two paintings, they represent to saint francisco solano in post-
mortem. That means, he was 24 hours after dead.

Mural painting: You can see here, the mural painting of the 16th century, that with the
time was covered with eight layers of painting. These mural painting was a copy of the
tile you have seen outside and that we will see in the cloister.
THE MAIN CLOISTER:

This is the main cloister of this monastery, is decorated with Seville tiles of 1620, as you
can see here. On the top, you can see this beautiful craft that has the technique
machihembrado, it means that the pieces are connected with pressure like a puzzle.

CHAPTER ROOM:

This was the meeting room but only to religion people to discuss topics, issues about the
church. In front of us, in the center of the room, we can see that chair or tribune, which
represents to Fray Duns Scoto, he proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception,
that means thar the Virgin Mary was free from original sin from the first moment of the
conception.

Back to you, a half arch, where we can find a sentence written in Latin, that translated in
English sentence would be, Sir, I have known your home, and I have loved it.

We have an altar of baroque style, it use gold leaf, is gold that has been hammered into
thin sheets.

In the center presents, to the immaculate conception. On the top, to Saint Francis of
Asissi, and the other four are, san marcos, san juan, san lucas and san mateo.

Mural painting: At the beginning here there was a canvases, but had to be lowered
because they had to be restored after the last earthquake in 1974. So, when it happened,
they discovered that behind these canvases, there had these mural paintings that
represent the same as the canvases, parts of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Now, you
note that some characters are with no faces, right?? Well, nowadays it is still a mystery,
professional people still study.

THE PRAYER ROOM:

This room was called like that because the franciscans used to gathered here to recite
the De profundis psalm befere they go to the dinning room.

This room shows a collection of eleven paintings, which represent the Via Crucis,
attributed to Pedro Pablo Rubens school. Into them, we found the technique called “Light
of cave” which is the illuminate of the central character, in this case, Jesus.
In the middle of the room we can see this small crypt where remains the benefactor of
the order, Luis de Castilla Altamirano and his wife.

Sculpture:Two crucified christs, worked in ivory.

When Jesus was crucified on Calvary, there were two men standing next to Him, they
were crucified with Him, the good thief and the bad thief, jesus promised to the good one
that he will be with him in the paraíse.

DINNING ROOM:

In the middle we can see, this furniture called Ambon, here was located a franciscan to
read the Bible passages before they start eating.

Today we have a little exposition about an important person, he was a franciscan, his
name was Jose Mojica, before he decided to enter to the franciscan orden, he was an
actor and singer, and then he decided to changed his life and enter to this orden.

LAST SUPPER (Final meal): We see that it is not a tradicional last supper, because it
has some differences, for example the table, it is circular, we have peruvian food, like
the guinea pig, hot pepper. Another diference: we see children that represent purity. And
on the bottom, we see a dog, the fidelity. There, we see a man who sits. Maybe he was
a benefactor or perhaps he finished making this canvas.

SACRISTY:

This was the place where the Franciscans used to put their liturgical vestment. Here, the
priest prepared before they start the mass.

DRAWERS OR SHELTERS: In theses drawers, they kept their liturgical vestments for
example, Dalmatics and chasuble, but they didn’t fold them. We see around, these
panels representing saints and martyrs of the Franciscan Order.

In the central part of the room, there is the monstrance made to display the sacred host.
It was brought from cusco in 1672. Protects the blood and body of Jesus. Worked in
silver and gold bronze with gemstone.
BEFORE SACRISTY:

Here, we have a genealogical family tree. On the top, we see to Jesus, and then
Immaculate Conception, the patron of the franciscan orden. And finally, San Francis of
Asissi, the founder. It is divided in two branches, it means, men are called franciscans,
and women are clarisas.

CATACOMBS:

Now we are under the church, we are in the catacombs, it’s similar to the catamcobs in
Rome. This catacombs was built in the 16 century and closed in 1821 by the liberator
José de San Martin, because in that way, we avoid pestes, illnesses. In 1947, it was re-
open and made the excavations. Finally, three years later, it was inagurated like a
museum.

Catacombs were built with cal y canto, it is a mixture of quicklime, rivers stone and egg
white of sea birds.

People used to be burie under the church because they believed that their souls would
probable be closer to god. Therefore, approximates that 25,000 people were buried here.

People were buried one over another, each body was covered with a layer of quicklime,
earth and sand. We can see differents types of bones: skulls, femur, tibia, and perone.
Each grave has between four o five meters deep.

This well/pit has ten meters deep, it is antisaimics because it is like an inverting cone.

It is possible that there were tunnels behind this walls that conected to the catedral,
goberment palace and saint inquisition.