Cuzco
PERU
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Titles: Cusco, Kosko, Qosqo, Quechua
Cuzco, also spelled Cusco or Kosko, Quechua Qosqo, city and Inca región, south-central Peru. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere. Formerly the capital of the extensive Inca empire, it retains much of its highly crafted early stone architecture, which is typically preserved in the foundations and lower stories of Spanish colonial structures. Cuzco was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.
The city stands high in the Andes at an average elevation of 11,150 feet (3,400 metres) at the west end of the Huatanay valley, a basin extending 20 miles (30 km) east to Huambutio. It is watered by the small Huatanay, Huancaro, and Chunchullmayo rivers, tributaries of the Vilcanota. The air is generally dry, and frost is rare even during the coldest months, June and July. The rainy season is from November to February.
Cuzco, whose name derives from a Quechua word meaning “navel” or “centre,” dates from the 11th or 12th century and was the capital of Tawantinsuyu (“Realm of the Four Parts”), an empire that by the late 15th century extended to the northwest some 1,100 miles (1,800 km), reaching approximately to the northern border of present-day Ecuador, and to the south 1,600 miles (2,600 km), reaching the centre of present-day Chile, as well as to the southeast to portions of modern Bolivia and Argentina. The population of the empire at the time of the Spanish conquest, in the 1530s, may have numbered more than 12 million. The city itself had tens of thousands of inhabitants, perhaps as many as 200,000. Cuzco and the surrounding area contain extensive Inca ruins that reflect great skill in engineering, stonework, and architecture. Still extant are numerous walls built without mortar; their stones were cut in irregular shapes and fitted with such precision that a matchbox cover cannot be inserted into most seams. The famous Stone of Twelve Angles is a fine example of this construction. The original streets of Cuzco are narrow and frequently stepped.
Walls of Inca stonework form the foundations of Spanish structures lining a street in Cuzco, Peru.
Walls of Inca stonework form the foundations of Spanish structures lining a street in Cuzco, Peru.
D. Donne Bryant Stock Photography Agency
Forces of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro occupied Cuzco in November 1533 and sacked the city. Pizarro formally established the municipal government of Cuzco in March 1534 in the name of the emperor Charles V, but the city declined in importance after Pizarro moved his capital to the coastal site of Lima in 1535. A major earthquake occurred in 1650, causing great destruction to the buildings then standing in Cuzco. The rebuilding efforts that followed mark the beginning of the Cuzco Baroque period, during which the city was the centre of a prolific artistic production in masonry, painting, sculpture, jewelry, and ornamental woodworking. The work was guided or influenced by Roman Catholic priests and monks, and several notable churches and other buildings were erected in place of—or above—existing Inca structures. Three hundred years later, in May 1950, Cuzco experienced another significant earthquake, which damaged all the churches and almost 90 percent of the dwellings.
Cuzco, Peru: Society of Jesus, Church of the
Cuzco, Peru: Society of Jesus, Church of the
Church of the Society of Jesus, Cuzco, Peru.
© Ron Gatepain
The church of Santo Domingo, consecrated in 1654, incorporates the foundations and several walls of the Koricancha (Coricancha), a Quechua name meaning “Golden Enclosure,” or “Golden Garden”; the site was dedicated to Viracocha, the creator deity, and Inti, the sun god, and is also known as the Temple of the Sun. It also contained shrines to a variety of other deities. It was constructed by the Inca on a sacred site and served as the nucleus of a grand astronomical and calendrical observatory. During Inca rule, the Koricancha’s finely crafted walls were sheathed in hundreds of silver and gold plates, and its roof was covered with a mixture of thatch and gold “straws” so that it glittered in the sunlight. In its terraced gardens the Inca ruler ceremonially planted finely crafted gold statuettes in the form of stalks of corn (maize). According to some early chroniclers, the temple grounds also contained gold statues of llamas, shepherds, insects, flowers, and small animals. As with most other treasures of the Inca empire, however, the artwork of the Koricancha was converted into bullion and shipped to Spain.
The city’s other architecturally significant buildings include the National University of San Antonio Abad del Cuzco (founded 1598); the church of La Compañía, which was built on the foundations of the Temple of the Serpents (Amarucancha); La Merced church and convent, the earliest Christian church in Cuzco (founded 1534); and the Santa Catalina convent, which replaced the House of the Virgins of the Sun (Acllahuasi or Acllawasi). The home of the 16th-century historian Garcilaso de la Vega is also notable.