INTRODUCTION

The City of Kings

From the beginning Lima, the city of kings and viceroys, was an oasis of culture and elegance in the American Indies. Just a few decades after its foundation, Lima already rivaled Mexico as the most important metropolis in the Spanish-American empire. Baroque and Renaissance churches, mansions, palaces, universities and archdioceses filled Lima. The cultural scene positively bummed as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Lima had but a population of just 25,000.

The ancient Rímac Valley, "the speaker" in the Quechua language, was originally settled by fishermen and hunter-gathrers, ruled over by a local chieftain, Taulichusco. It was here that on January 15, 1535, Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima. In less than 70 years, Lima was to concentrate all the power and wealth of all trade and cultural activity in the Vice-regency: it had become, in effect, the most important city in the Americas.