Church of La Merced

This guide to the Church of La Merced in Lima opens in 1534, before Pizarro had even laid out the city's streets, when a Spanish captain named Francisco de Becerra paid six thousand silver pesos to a friar for a permanent burial spot inside the walls he was funding. It follows the building through two centuries of earthquakes and rebuilding, and the Andean mining wealth that kept paying for its gilded altarpiece and stone facade. Along the way you'll hear about Padre Pedro Urraca, a friar remembered for spending his life caring for the sick rather than for money. Look for Becerra's crypt beneath the floor as you walk the nave.