Museo y Catacumbas del Convento de San Francisco de Asís de Cusco
Colonial convent crypts of stacked skulls beneath a monumental painted family tree of coats of arms.
This guide to the Museum and Catacombs of the Convento de San Francisco de Asís in Cusco opens with a puzzle: how did a religious order that vowed total poverty end up this rich? Downstairs, in the crypts, unnamed friars and townspeople lie stacked in simple niches; upstairs hangs an enormous genealogical tree of coats of arms, painted for the wealthy families who bought their names a place in this house of the poor. Along the way you'll hear about the convent's founding in 1572 and its rebuilding after the earthquake of 1650, when its church filled with paintings by local Cusco School masters. Stand between the two floors and you're standing between two very different kinds of burial.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.