Cathedral in Cusco

One of the cooler things I did on my recent winter vacation was take this audio tour of a huge cathedral in the main square of Cusco. The Spanish of the course decided that the best place to build their cathedral would be right on top of an old Incan Palace (This is a common theme in Cusco, which is why Machu Pichu is unique, because the Spanish never found it and thus never destroyed it. Many of the buildings in Cusco are built with the original Incan foundations beneath them). One of things that made the audio tour unique was that it described the techniques and strategies the Spanish used to make Catholicism more accessible to the local population. Much of the artwork in the church had a dual purpose of both worshiping the religion and explaining the religion to the local population. The most memorable painting in the cathedral is a painting of the last supper where the meal has been replaced with the meat of a Guinea Pig, which apparently was something upper class Incans used to share at feasts. Also in the church were several carvings that could be take to be either as the Incan figure Pachamama or the Virgin Mary.

Also amusing was that the Spanish apparently did not respect or understand the Incan's drainage system and as a result for a hundred years or so the church kept flooding because water naturally pooled there.

Also interesting was the fact the greater emphasis on saints then Catholic traditions that I grew up with. Especially, interesting was different representations for the same figure especially of the Virgin Mary with different names, such as Virgin Del Carmen and Virgin of Belen. I was slightly reminded of the scene in Talladega Nights where Will Ferrell describes what Jesus is his favorite to pray to. They also had a statue for a black Jesus (named El Negro) who was the saint in charge of earthquakes. (the audio tour said he was black because of the smoke of the candles lit to him but I'm do not really believe that because none of the other statures seemed slightly blackened despite even presumably they also would have had candles lit for them.

Another thing the Cathedral had was the large public cross of Fransisco Pizarro.