Basílica and Convent of San Francisco | Lima
Colonial monastery whose crypt of tens of thousands of poor dead sits beneath a library of rare books and imported art.
This guide to the Basílica and Convent of San Francisco in Lima follows two sides of the same colonial building: an underground crypt where Lima's poor were buried for free across two centuries, and the wealth-soaked convent above it, with a library of nearly 25,000 books, a cedar staircase shipped from Central America, and Old Master paintings on the walls. It traces the 1746 earthquake that cracked the building but left it standing, and the burials' end in 1808 when the city opened a cemetery beyond its walls. The crypt's passageways are narrow, so plan for a slow, single-file walk.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.