Museo de los Descalzos, Religious art museum in Rímac, Peru.
The Museo de los Descalzos occupies the church and convent of the Franciscan Descalzos at the end of the Alameda de los Descalzos in the Rímac district. The museum opened on 18 December 1981 in rooms inside the convent, and its route covers four hundred years of history and art, from the 16th to the 21st century.
The museum opened on 18 December 1981 inside the Convento de los Descalzos, at the end of the Alameda de los Descalzos, a promenade laid out in 1611 by order of viceroy Juan de Mendoza y Luna, Marquis of Montesclaros, to improve the road to the convent. The building was declared a National Monument in 1972 and lies within the UNESCO-listed historic centre of Lima (1991). Since 23 August 2011 the Fundación Descalzos del Rímac, a non-profit, has administered it.
The collection displays religious artworks from Peru and Europe that reflect daily monastic life. Visitors can understand how the monks used their spaces and what role art and decoration played in their routine.
The museum is located in a residential neighborhood and is best accessed on foot, keeping in mind that stairs and steep pathways are part of the route. Guided tours help make the layout and collections more understandable, especially for first-time visitors.
The museum holds 32 choral books from the 17th and 18th centuries, written on parchment and bound in cowhide, kept from the convent's liturgical use. The pinacoteca also gathers Peruvian viceregal painting from the Lima and Cusco schools alongside works from Quito and the European Baroque.
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