Historic Centre of Lima

The Historic Centre of Lima (Spanish: Centro histórico de Lima) is the historic city centre of the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. Located in the city's districts of Lima and Rímac, both in the Rímac Valley, it consists of two areas: the first is the Monumental Zone established by the Peruvian government in 1972, and the second one—contained within the first one—is the World Heritage Site established by UNESCO in 1988, whose buildings are marked with the organisation's black-and-white shield.
Founded on January 18, 1535, by Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, the city served as the political, administrative, religious and economic capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, as well as the most important city of Spanish South America. The evangelisation process at the end of the 16th century allowed the arrival of several religious orders and the construction of churches and convents. The University of San Marcos, the so-called "Dean University of the Americas", was founded on May 12, 1551, and began its functions on January 2, 1553 in the Convent of Santo Domingo.
Originally contained by the now-demolished city walls that surrounded it, the Cercado de Lima features numerous architectural monuments that have survived the serious damage caused by a number of different earthquakes over the centuries, such as the Convent of San Francisco, the largest of its kind in this part of the world. Many of the buildings are joint creations of artisans, local artists, architects and master builders from the Old Continent. It is among the most important tourist destinations in Peru.
The city of Lima, the capital of Peru, was founded by Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, and given the name City of the Kings. Nevertheless, with time its original name persisted, which may come from one of two sources: Either the Aymara language lima-limaq (meaning "yellow flower"), or the Spanish pronunciation of the Quechuan word rimaq (meaning "talker", and actually written and pronounced limaq in the nearby Quechua I languages). It is worth nothing that the same Quechuan word is also the source of the name given to the river that feeds the city, the Rímac River (pronounced as in the politically dominant Quechua II languages, with an "r" instead of an "l"). Early maps of Peru show the two names displayed jointly.
Under the Viceroyalty of Peru, the authority of the viceroy as a representative of the Spanish monarchy was particularly important, since its appointment supposed an important ascent and the successful culmination of a race in the colonial administration. The entrances to Lima of the new viceroys were specially lavish. For the occasion, the streets were paved with silver bars from the gates of the city to the Palace of the Viceroy.
In 1988, UNESCO declared the historic centre of Lima a World Heritage Site for its originality and high concentration of historic monuments constructed during the viceregal era. In 2023, it was expanded with two exclaves to include the Quinta and Molino de Presa and the Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of Cercado.
Since the 2010s, Spanish–Peruvian real estate company Arte Express has been granted ownership of a number of buildings in the area, having been since restored. In 2021, as part of renovation works made in preparation for the bicentennial celebrations of that year, the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima installed 206 different QR codes across different landmarks of the centre that, when scanned, open a video that details the selected building's history.
On January 18, 2024, the city's 489th anniversary, president Dina Boluarte announced a "special regime" that targets the area in order to allow restoration and repair works to take place. On January 17, 2025, the municipal authorities relaunched Lima, Ciudad de los Reyes, a patronage aimed at the promotion of the restoration of the city's cultural heritage sites.
The World Heritage Site, divided into three zones, features a number of landmarks.
The main zone is that of the Historic Centre of Lima (266.17 ha; buffer zone: 806.71 ha), which features the following:
The Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of Cercado (10.2 ha) was added to the World Heritage Site in 2023.
The Quinta and Molino de Presa (1.62 ha) were added to the World Heritage Site in 2023.