Casa Cabrera, Colonial mansion housing a museum in the historic centre of Cusco, Peru
Casa Cabrera is a two-level colonial mansion on the Plazoleta de las Nazarenas in Cusco. Its asymmetric facade has a stone portal with a postigo door and a heraldic emblem, two balconies with metal balustrades, and a bricked-up double-jamb arch. Inside, a Mudejar courtyard with an octagonal fountain is framed by four wings, one with two-level stone galleries and others with cantilevered corridors on brackets. The staircase is a prominent feature.
The site held the Inca school Amaru Cata, and Inca walls survive at the doorway. In 1558 the plot housed Cusco's first Monastery of Santa Clara until 1622. Luis Gerónimo de Cabrera y La Cerda, alcalde ordinario in 1649, gave the house its name; after the 1650 earthquake it stood abandoned for years.
The house carries the name of the Cabrera family who lived here in the 1600s, and reflects how Spanish and local building styles merged together. Visitors can see how colonial rooms sit alongside pre-Columbian objects, showing how two cultures existed side by side.
The building sits three blocks from Cusco's main square and is easy to reach on foot. Visitors should wear sturdy shoes since the courtyards and hallways have cobbled surfaces and some steps.
Original Inca walls remain visible in the hallways of the house, preserved beneath the Spanish construction. The Cabrera family coat of arms is carved into the facade, marking the family's status in colonial times.
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