Alameda de los Descalzos, Colonial promenade in Rímac, Peru

Alameda de los Descalzos is a 450-metre public promenade in the Rímac district of Lima, running from the end of Alcázar Avenue. Two square tan stone pillars topped by white statues of robed figures and open iron gates mark the entrance. The paved walk is bordered by dark iron railings with pointed tips, rows of small trees, a hundred aligned marble benches, twelve Carrara marble statues of the zodiac and months, and 50 wrought-iron ornamental vases.

Viceroy Juan de Mendoza y Luna laid it out in 1611 as the Alameda Grande, modeled on Seville's Alameda de Hércules of 1574. Colonial chroniclers record an original layout of three streets, two for carriages and a central one for pedestrians, with three fountains donated by Agustín Hipólito de Landaburu and eight rows of trees. Viceroy Manuel Amat y Juniet rebuilt it in 1770, and in 1856 President Ramón Castilla gave it its unified layout with an iron fence imported from England.

The name refers to the Discalced (barefoot) friars whose Recolección church, founded in 1592 by lay brother fray Andrés Corzo, closes the far end of the promenade. Lima's oral tradition ties the walk to the tapadas, women who covered their faces and brushed past suitors under a chaperone's eye, and to the romance of Viceroy Amat and Micaela Villegas, the Perricholi, whose mill house stood nearby.

The site is easily walkable and provides shade through mature trees, which is welcome on hot days. Visitors should come early in the morning or late afternoon to enjoy the most comfortable temperatures.

The twelve Carrara marble statues of zodiac signs and months, plus 50 wrought-iron ornamental vases, were declared National Cultural Heritage in 2018 as part of 91 monumental sculptures in Lima's historic centre. The iron railing itself was imported from England in 1856 on the order of President Ramón Castilla.