Museo del Convento de San Francisco y Catacumbas
Lima, Peru

The monumental complex that makes up the Convent of San Francisco de Jesús El Grande in Lima began to be built in 1546 and was inaugurated in 1672, as the main headquarters of the Franciscan Province of the XII Apostles of Peru that governed the entire Viceroyalty. It is declared a Cultural Heritage of the Nation.

Since 1968, the museum has exhibited and preserved one of the most representative historical and artistic collections of Peruvian viceregal art, since the museographic collections gathered over more than 400 years by the Franciscan order in the various permanent exhibition rooms adjacent to the convent constitute documentary evidence of its presence and importance.

Thus, the architecture, canvases from the series of the life of Saint Anthony of Assisi, liturgical vestments, religious clothing, silverware, kitchenware, among others, reveal the complexity and trends of the time. The visit is complemented by the Catacombs of the convent, a crypt that consists of intricate underground passages where the skeletal remains of the ancient inhabitants of Lima are located.