Peruvian colonial architecture

[1] The use of building systems as the quincha, the ornamentation of Andean iconography and solutions to give new forms to Peruvian viceroyal architecture an own identity.

This style was characterized by the use of ornaments and watermarks that were giving away the architectural lines of the building's likeness chiseled work of silver, hence the name plateresque and where art blends Gothic, Romanesque and Arabic of the colonial period, from the 16th to mid-17th century.

The new style appeared primarily on the stone carved facades of churches and palaces, first in Arequipa and later in the Lake Titicaca region and further south to Oruro and even into Chile.

[2] It was the most ornate Baroque and distinguished by the use of complicated and whimsical ornaments exaggerated, his advocate was a Spanish architect named José de Churriguera.

These are magnificent examples of this style in Lima the facade of churches of Nuestra Señora de la Merced and San Agustín.