Iglesia de San Pedro, Andahuaylillas

From the outside, the church of San Pedro Apóstol in Andahuaylillas looks almost plain: a whitewashed adobe building raised on a stone platform above a wide plaza shaded by old pisonay trees, with a square bell tower and an open balcony chapel on its façade. Step through the doors, though, and nearly every surface is covered in gilding, carved wood and painted murals. The contrast has earned it the nickname the Sistine Chapel of the Andes, or of the Americas, and it is one of the richest interiors of the colonial Andean Baroque.

The church was probably built in the late sixteenth century, possibly over an earlier Inca shrine, since remains of Inca walls survive inside. It has a single nave with side chapels and thick mud-brick walls. Its outward style is a provincial Renaissance, while the interior belongs fully to the Baroque. The ceiling is covered in a gilded Mudéjar-style coffering of flowers and fruit, and gilded frames bind paintings and wall decoration into one glittering whole. Much of the painting is the work of Luis de Riaño, a painter born in Lima in 1596 who trained under Angelino Medoro and settled in Cusco; one of his murals carries the date 1626. The best known of them, on the inside of the entrance wall, sets out the two paths of life side by side: the easy road leading to hell and the narrow one leading to heaven. An image of the Virgin of the Rosary in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament has been attributed to Diego Quispe Tito, and other canvases come from the Cusco School.

The murals were commissioned by the parish priest Juan Pérez Bocanegra, a scholar of Andean languages remembered as the author of Hanacpachap cussicuinin, a Quechua hymn that is the earliest known piece of vocal polyphony composed in the Americas. His work left a trace at the baptistery, where the arch bears the baptismal formula in five languages: Latin, Spanish, Quechua, Aymara and Puquina. Although dedicated to Saint Peter, the church has its high altar presided over by the Virgin of the Rosary. The village of Andahuaylillas, home to about 5,000 people, lies in the fertile Vilcanota valley, on a site that was already of some importance under the Incas.

Getting there

Andahuaylillas lies in Quispicanchi Province, in the Cusco Region, about 35 km south-east of the city of Cusco along the road that continues towards Puno. The nearest airport is Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ) in Cusco, about 32 km away.