Next, you will learn more about the museum and Catacombs existing in the temple and convent of San Francisco de Asís, which house important vestiges, which show us a little more about the history of Evangelization in the city of Cusco.
Evangelization in the new earth, was always a very discussed topic not only in terms of religiosity, but also many other branches such as social, cultural and even political; In this article we will try to narrate how evangelization took place in Cusco, characterized by being the most important city of the Incas and also of the first conquerors who had named this territory as the new castle, we will also narrate the participation of the Franciscan order in this mission.
To begin with, we must know that not only was the Franciscan order that came to exercise the doctrine of evangelization, along with this order, also came the Dominicans who were the first to arrive since they came along with Francisco Pizarro who would have focused all their interest in the City of Cusco for all the riches existing in the imperial city. Then there are also the Mercedarian, Augustinian and Jesuit orders that would be the first five orders to arrive on this side of the continent.
Primarily these orders come to the city of Cusco with the slogan to carry out the evangelization in the same way that was done in Europe at the time, which caused the former settlers to be subjected to the Christian faith through the so-called "doctrines", ending with the idolatrous practices to which the ancient Peruvians were accustomed, ending with their gods destroying all signs of worship such as huacas, mallquis, apachetas, etc.
Already in the sixteenth century the large amount of gold of the Incas blinded certain lay people to religious, which gender was distorted the evangelizing campaign, the appropriation of the land where before the Inca god was venerated, the Sun, by the religious caused that the parishes are created, for that reason the parishes of the Indians are created that although they did not have priority on the other parishes of the Christians, had greater advantage to realize the evangelizadora campaign, according to some studies of the historian Donato Amado, which are based on the chronicles of Bernabé Cobo, in the current neighborhood of Santa Ana was the parish of Indians of Qarmenca and that included a temple whose patron was San Franc isco and that was based on the fifth huaca of the Chinchaysuyo that is to say the huaca de Chayatapra, then in 1553 the Franciscan province of "The Twelve Apostles of Peru" was founded, whose creation served to better organize the structure of the to Franciscan order in American lands, proof of this are the enormous canvases, unique sculptures and other incomparable art.
One of the greatest finds is the crypts found not only under the convent of San Francisco, but also under the same temple (main atrium, under the most holy), the sensation is indescribable, go back five centuries and see the bony remains of people who They saw the last inhabitants of ancient Cusco, according to the Curator and Cayetano Villavicencio the convent and temple of San Francisco keeps a great artistic and architectural sample of the first Catholics in Cusco, it is also from here that the first Franciscan evangelizers came from all over the south from Peru, even from the high Peru, which today is known as "Puno and Bolivia".
The first question one asks when visiting the catacombs are: who did it and what was the purpose of burying human remains inside the church and the convent of san francisco? The answer is that in large constructions of religious symbol was planned also to construct sepulchral crypts and catacombs, in the case of san francisco both were built. One of the main reasons was the belief that when one dies and is buried under or near the main altar had the possibility of being closer to God, so religious were asked to do so in exchange for some taxes in please the temple.
One of the crypts contains a large part of the Franciscan family, as well as several of the benefactors and some friends and family members of the religious, especially people who were involved in the brotherhoods, in this can be seen even without number of femurs and over them several skulls in a semi-ordered way. And although it is still known which is the exact depth of each of the compartments, it is calculated according to an adjacent compartment that possibly have a possibility of eight to ten meters of depth.
This means that basically the entire church of San Francisco is on a general cemetery, another detail is that, of most of the catacombs of Peru, only murals were found in the crypts of San Francisco del Cusco, it can be seen the souls of purgatory, some of them purging sorrow and others in hell, are seen by the seraphic Father san francisco, also by the angels and there is also a phrase written in Latin, which emphasizes prayer for all souls " For the expiration of life, do not forget my brother that just as you are alive, I was also alive but now I am purging pity and you must always pray for our eternal rest. " You can also see some crypts of different families recognized at that time in the city of Cusco, some of them with their family coat of arms.
A beautiful tour of the city, especially the historic center of Cusco, gives us the opportunity to see buildings built on walls of ancient palaces and temples of the Inca Empire, this fusion of architectural styles makes Cusco a unique place around the world , architectural gems await you, do not wait any longer come and enjoy the best tours throughout Peru with the travel agency Machu Picchu Travel.
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