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The religious
Order of Mercedaries was founded in 1223 by Saint
Peter Nolasco who was a native of France, with the
main aim of redeeming the captives. In Qosqo the church
and convent were founded towards 1535 by Fray Sebastián
de Castañeda, over a land facing the Kusipata
Square. The land was donated by Marquis Francisco
Pizarro with all the attributes that conferred to
him the right of victors. |
By the beginning it was attempted to build a majestic church
and convent that were destroyed by the earthquake in 1650;
the present-day building belongs to the subsequent years.
The church has two entrance gates; the main one faces the
Espinar Square. It has just one bell tower with a very Cusquenian
baroque. The church has today the title of Minor Basilica
granted by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Also over here, the architects
were Spanish but it was completely made by Quechua stone masons.
Inside, it has a wide principal nave and two relatively narrow
aisles. Its High Altar is neoclassical with six solid gilded
Corinth columns and the image of the Lady of Mercy in the
central part. More over, it has twelve other altarpieces with
different images and canvases, standing out the Lord of Huanca
and the Cross of the Urraca Priest covered with plates of
beaten silver. Besides, over here is the image of the Lord
of Tambo de Montero, that according to tradition was whipped
every Friday night by the Qosqo's Jewish people that met in
the house of a Portuguese merchant. The church has also a
high choir. Inside the crypt located under the church's High
Altar are buried remains of Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the
Marquis and those of Francisco de Carbajal whose heads were
fried in oil and sent to Lima; the body of Diego de Almagro
the Old (Pizarro's partner), and that of Almagro the Young
(Diego's son).
The first convent's cloister is the most beautiful and surprising
in the complex; it has a square shape, two floors, and archways
with thick and solid rectangular pillars that show nice carved
Corinth columns in their front sides. It is in short, an elaborate
and marvelous work made with andesites. The second cloister
is relatively simple and earlier than 1650. In the first cloister
are canvases representing the life of Saint Peter Nolasco
painted by Ignacio Chacon towards 1763. Basilio Santa Cruz
Pumacallo made the canvas representing "Saint Lawrence"
decapitated. Besides, Basilio Pacheco painted the enormous
canvas that represents the order's benefactors which is located
by the stairway leading to the second floor; in the second
story is also a collection of canvases representing the Saint
Augustine's life that were moved after the destruction of
the Saint Augustine church and convent. In this cloister is
also the enclosure serving as museum for the convent's valuables;
among which is the famous Monstrance of la Merced (a vessel
in which the consecrated Host is exposed to receive the veneration
of the faithful) that is 1.2 mts. (3'4") high and weights
22.2 kg. (49 lb.). The sun of the monstrance was made in gold
with a baroque style by Luis Ayala de Olmos in the XVII century.
Lower is the image of Our Lady of Mercy and even lower a pretty
mermaid staying on her knees whose body is formed by a pearl
that looks like a woman's breast and belly. Lower is the pedestal
that was made by Manuel Piedra by the first years of the XIX
century with a French neoclassical style in which the central
part has an Easter Lamb and lower two pelicans representing
Christianity. Alfonsina Barrionuevo wrote that " ...
It has one thousand five hundred eighteen diamonds and fine
gems, six hundred fifteen pearls, one amethyst, one topaz,
three emeralds, many dozens of rubies and some other precious
stones.". More over, in this enclosure there are different
mainly anonymous canvases among which are the "Virgin's
Coronation" painted by Bernardo Bitti; the "Holy
Family" ascribed to Rubens and another "Virgin's
Coronation" and a small "Holy Family" ascribed
to Diego Quispe T'ito. Also over here are manuscripts on parchment,
a small Christ carved in ivory, precious metal jewels such
as crowns, incense burners, candelabra, etc. There are also
Chinese jars and 8 chasubles embroidered with gold and silver
threads among which is that belonging to Fray Vicente Valverde
(Pizarro's partner). In this cloister is the Scriptures Room
where there are many other canvases; in one side of its entrance
is an interesting canvas made by Ignacio Chacon representing
Virgin Mary nursing at the same time a baby Jesus Christ and
Saint Peter Nolasco. Also in this first cloister is the famous
Fray Francisco Salamanca's cell. He was native from Oruro
in present-day Bolivia, whose portrait is found by the entrance
and who became famous by the first decades of XVIII century
as a great orator, poet, musician, painter and composer of
Christmas carols in Quechua and Aymara. He passed his last
30 years in confinement in that dark, humid cell, keeping
the small organ made by himself and the murals he painted.
Tradition tells that he used to go out just at midnight of
Fridays carrying on his back the cross that today is in front
of his cell; he died in 1737.
