Monastery of San Francisco Catacombs and Museum, Colonial catacombs and religious museum in Historic Center, Peru.
The monastery features underground tunnels arranged with skeletal remains and a museum displaying religious artifacts from the colonial period.
The burial site, established in the 16th century and active until 1808, contains the remains of approximately 75,000 individuals from Lima's colonial era.
The museum houses a library of 25,000 books in Spanish, English, and Quechua, along with religious paintings depicting local interpretations of biblical scenes.
Guided tours of the monastery and catacombs operate daily from 9:00 to 20:15, with an entrance fee of 10 Soles per person.
The grand refectory contains a painting of The Last Supper that incorporates Peruvian elements such as guinea pigs and local potatoes into the biblical scene.
Location: Lima
Accessibility: Wheelchair limited access
Opening Hours: Monday-Sunday 09:00-20:15
Phone: +5117197188
Email: informes@museocatacumbas.com
Website: http://museocatacumbas.com
GPS coordinates: -12.04530,-77.02743
Latest update: March 7, 2025 23:15
Beneath the streets of Europe's cities lies an underground world of burial chambers and crypts that tell the story of how people honored their dead across centuries. These underground spaces, ranging from simple rock-carved tombs to elaborate vaulted rooms, house the remains of millions, along with religious monuments, painted walls, and carved stone that blend Roman, Egyptian, and Christian traditions. Walk through these passages and you encounter the actual practices of death and faith that shaped European life from the 1st century through the 1800s. The frescoes on the walls, the mosaics underfoot, and the carefully arranged bones reveal not just how different cultures buried their dead, but also what they believed about the afterlife and how they saw themselves in the world. Each crypt and catacomb is like a time capsule, a place where the concerns of ancient Romans, medieval Christians, and colonial communities became permanent in stone and bone. From the systematic arrangements in Paris, where millions were moved to former quarries when cemeteries overflowed, to Vienna's imperial burial chambers that housed rulers for centuries, these underground networks show how cities solved practical problems while expressing deep spiritual meaning. Whether decorated with geometric patterns made from thousands of bones, painted with biblical scenes, or simply lined with neat rows of sarcophagi, each site reveals something different about how its people lived and what they thought mattered when life ended.
Government Palace
268 m
Plaza Mayor, Lima
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Monastery of San Francisco
23 m
Historic Centre of Lima
1.8 km
Legislative Palace of Peru
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Municipal Palace of Lima
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Puente de Piedra
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Plaza Bolívar
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Equestrian statue of Francisco Pizarro
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Archbishop's Palace of Lima
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Casa Aliaga, Lima
323 m
Museo de la Inquisición y del Congreso
323 m
Fountain at Plaza Mayor (Lima)
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Equestrian statue of Simón Bolívar
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Sagrario Metropolitano de Lima
280 m
Casa de Pilatos
95 m
National Afro-Peruvian Museum
240 m
Museo de Sitio Bodega y Quadra
144 m
Casa de la Literatura Peruana
165 m
Casa de las Trece Monedas
244 m
Arco del Puente
309 m
Ricardo Palma Bridge
385 m
St. James Cathedral, Moyobamba
312 m
Obelisk to the Defenders of Democracy
265 m
Simon Bolivar
301 m
Tomb of Francisco Pizarro
323 m
Pasaje Piura
379 m
Antiguo tribunal de la Santa Inquisición de Lima
323 mReviews
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