Garcilaso de la Vega's House, Colonial museum building in Cusco, Peru

Garcilaso de la Vega's House is a two-story colonial mansion on the south corner of Plaza Regocijo, built on an Inca platform whose base forms the stepped levels of the entrance. Its Andalusian layout centres on a patio ringed by rooms, with stone arcades along one side and tall, narrow door and window openings. A section of Inca wall is visible on its facade.

The plot first belonged to Francisco de Oñate and passed in 1560 to the conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas, who lived there with the Inca princess Isabel Chimpu Ocllo; their son, the chronicler Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, was born in the house. After the 1950 earthquake, architect Emilio Harth-Terré remodelled it and the Inca wall now visible on its front was discovered. In 1967 the Peruvian government expropriated the building for the Regional Historical Museum, and in 1972 it was included in Cusco's Monumental Zone.

The house is named after Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the chronicler born here in the 16th century, son of the conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega and the Inca princess Isabel Chimpu Ocllo. Since 1967 it has housed the Museo Histórico Regional, whose 13 rooms display ceramics, paintings, metals and textiles from the pre-Hispanic, viceregal, republican and contemporary periods.

The building sits on Calle Garcilaso in the heart of the city and is easy to reach on foot from most central areas. Visitors should be ready for uneven floors and multiple staircases inside, which require some physical mobility to navigate comfortably.

The Inca wall now visible on the facade was only discovered during the renovation that followed the 1950 earthquake, when architect Emilio Harth-Terré worked on the house owned by the Luna Oblitas family; the find was reported in the press. The house stands on an Inca platform linked to the eighth ceque toward Chinchaysuyo, established by Huayna Capac.