Basilica and Convent of San Francisco, Lima

Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Spanish philologist and scholar in this regard commented: "It is the largest and noblest monument that the conquest erected in these prodigious lands".

To the Franciscan Order of the Twelve Apostles, one of them next to Santo Domingo was ceded, on which Friar Francisco de la Cruz built a small ramada that he used as a chapel.

[1] Its construction was not very solid at that time, so in 1614, the architect and major worker of the convent, Friar Miguel de Huerta, noticed that the pillars of the building had poor foundations and were placed on gravel.

[1] On February 4, 1655, an earthquake occurred in Lima that brought down the Franciscan Convent, destroying its artistic riches and collapsing the entire effort of a century.

Inside today, the convent has attractions that will be described, together with its courtyards and gardens, which are surrounded by arcades with Sevillian azulejos plinths by the Hernando de Valladares workshop.

According to the traditions written by Ricardo Palma, these azulejos were placed by Alonso Godínez, a native of Guadalajara, Spain, who had been sentenced to hang for having killed his wife, the same as being confessed by the guardian of the Basilica of San Francisco the same day of his execution, he communicated this ability to him.

Without wasting time, the confessor immediately went to the Government Palace to request Godínez's pardon, which he obtained on the condition that he would wear the habit of a lay brother and never again set foot outside the convent door.

These Sevillian azulejos, brought directly from Seville, were donated by people like the famous Catalina Huanca, who was Francisco Pizarro's goddaughter, who went from Huancayo to Lima with 50 packhorses loaded with gold and silver.

On the other hand, the large amount of cedarwood, with which the different works of art presented by the convent were made, was sold by Pedro Jiménez Menacho, who was a wood importer, who received as payment according to Palma a small cup of chocolate.

Crossing the threshold of its main doorway and to the left side is a memorial plaque of marble, with the emblem of the Holy See, with the following words engraved: Pope John XXIII deigned to raise this church of San Francisco de Jesús de Lima to the category of minor basilica for its brief of January 11, 1963 that begin with these golden words: "Among so many and so beautiful temples that embellish the city of Lima, luminary on the shores of the great Pacific Ocean, the church of San Francisco de Jesús stands out deservedly, that adjoins the great monastery of los Frailes Menores produces great admiration both for the antiquity of its origin and the eminent of its architecture" etc.

It has a chest of drawers made in 1650[4] with reliefs of saints in its interior, intended to store clothing and liturgical vestments, and houses an important series of paintings of the apostolado attributed to the Francisco de Zurbarán Workshop.

Crossing the door of the convent, there is a spacious room, with baseboards adorned with azulejos, whose main attraction is a triptych of the Crucified Lord, whose side paintings are works by the Italian Angelino Medoro.

There are four paintings by famous artists, depicting Catholic saints; in the central part, the main attraction is an 18th-century Rococo-style pavilion, worked in wood and decorated in gold leaf.

The pavilion was formerly used for the Corpus Christi festival; in it, a custody of the Cusco School was placed; today there is an image of Christ the Savior in Baroque style from the 18th century, which belongs to the sacristy of the temple.

When the canvases were taken down in 1974, in order to restore them, mural paintings with mixed technique, tempera and oil, corresponding to the Italian Mannerist School, dating from the first third of the 17th century, were discovered by chance.

The following can be differentiated: one of embossed silver, which is used on the first Sunday of November of every year for the procession of the image of Jude the Apostle; another, carved in wood, and covered in gold leaf with fine openwork, made in 1732 on the occasion of the celebrations for the canonization of San Francisco Solano; and a third, destined for Saint Francis of Assisi, also worked in wood and covered in gold leaf, was made in 1672.

[7] Zurbarán was a painter who made his works in the Baroque style, mostly on religious themes, in which the composition and color are totally fantastic, giving the impression of observing a natural image.

At the back of this room there is a huge canvas of the Last Supper, made in 1658 by a Belgian Jesuit that only his name was registered as Diego de la Puente.

[7] There are very rare editions, incunabulas and Franciscan chronicles from the 15th to the 18th century, as well as some volumes published in the early days of printing in Peru, as well as more than six thousand parchments, numerous works by Jesuits, Augustinians, Benedictines, etc.

Halfway up to the second floor on the woven brick staircase that is on the left hand side is the Mudéjar dome, which, by its finish and dimensions has no comparison on the entire American continent.