The city's cathedral was home to the Crown of the Andes, a 16th-century Marianist devotional object featuring emeralds taken from the captured Inca Emperor Atahualpa.

[3] The culinary history of the Cauca Department was chosen because it maintains traditional food preparation methods that have been passed down orally for generations.

[4] In the 16th and 17th centuries, Popayán was administered by an appointed governor under the jurisdiction of the Royal Audience of Quito, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

In 1827 Simón Bolivar declared it a property with historic heritage value, when it was already a two steps hose[clarification needed] in front of the Santo Domingo plaza.

The last great governor of Cauca, Don Miguel de Arroyo Hurtado, made more renovations and reforms that gave it the most current look.

When the building was given to the University of Cauca in the early twentieth century, several changes and additional extensions were made, which recovered all the original spaces.

The trap lasted until 1766 when it was replaced by a water faucet, which remained until 1805 when a stone pile was put in its place, but it was removed too in 1910 after the inauguration of the monument to Sabio Caldas, a piece by the French sculptor Raoul Verlet, which has stood there since.

In May 2007 a proposal by architect Lorenzo Castro aimed to expand the pedestrian zone around the park, and in April 2009 the first phase of the work began.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the main headquarters have been in the Dominican Order cloister, one of the best examples of religious architecture in the city.

Its mechanism operated by the action of two lead weights which were changed by Antonio Nariño in the Colombia independence dispute in 1814, when metal was required to manufacture ammunition.

The designs were prepared by the Italian friar Fray Serafin Barbetti and a German engineer whose mummified remains are preserved in the Archdiocesan Museum of Religious Art.

His pulpit was designed in the first half of the nineteenth century by an illustrious son of the city, Francisco José de Caldas.

In particular it stands out its altar carved in wood and covered in gold, its expository baroque made in silver and an image of the Lady of Sorrows.

The current construction was consecrated in 1906 by Archbishop Manuel Antonio Arboleda, who brings it a magnificent European pipe organ.

It has put up with some changes, for example, the most recent occurred in 1983, when much of the facade which had been covered with paint and lime for at least two centuries, was left on view.

To arrive to this church, it is necessary to pass through the “quingos", a road of stone steps that allow a nice climb to one of the viewpoints of the city.

The father of them all, Jose Maria Mosquera y Figueroa, was considered by the Liberator Simón Bolívar as the only person he would choose as a second parent.

The old residence of the Arboleda family, was built in the eighteenth century based on plans of the priest Andres Perez Marcelino Arroyo, and it was acquired by the city in 1974 and renovated for its current use in 1979.

Their collections are extraordinary examples of religious art, silverware, pictures of the so-called Quito School and paintings of the colonial period.

It is located in a mansion on the Próceres street, and it is dedicated to the poet Guillermo Valencia, one of the most prominent members of Modernism in Spanish literature.

Its numerous rooms are decorated with valuable works of art and artistic pieces, as well as a collection of hundred of selected books, diplomas, medals and awards that Master Valencia received for his distinguished political life and for its fine literary and poetic compositions.

Since the time of the conquest the pasos have been carried through the streets on the shoulders of the traditional 'cargueros' in a route shaped like a cross, which takes in the main churches and temples of the city.

The image is a polychrome baroque wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ carved in the eighteenth century in the style of the Quito school.

[8] A festival in honour of Amo Jesus as patron of the parish is celebrated with fireworks, processions, religious ceremonies and cultural events beginning on the 15th day before the last Sunday in August each year.

It is said that among the original performers there were good music interpreters, excelling in playing the chirimía, that is made up of flutes (transverse cane), guacharacas, drums, castrueras and triángulos, making its appearance in the traditional celebrations of Popayán, especially at Christmas time and at the end of the year.

[citation needed] Typical dishes of the city are a legacy of both Spanish and indigenous cultural interaction, integrating components of local origin with fruits brought from Spain.

[citation needed] The Congress is organized by the Gastronomic Corporation of Popayán, which has presented seven events which have also featured the participation of various countries as special guests: Peru, Brazil, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Italy and France.

Its content is the most complete of Colombia and consists of hojaldra [es], rosquillas, manjar blanco, dulce cortado, natillas and fig syrups, among others.

The Cineclub La Tuátara runs every Wednesday in the Comfacauca Institute of Technology auditorium (opened 2001), which has established itself as a cultural space for the city.