The Church of Andahuaylillas

From the village square, San Pedro Apóstol looks like an ordinary rural church: mud brick, a tiled roof, a low bell wall. Inside, every surface has been worked. The Jesuits built it from the late sixteenth century and had the walls covered with murals, the ceiling coffered and painted, the arch above the nave frescoed, and a main altarpiece carved and gilded in gold leaf. Canvases of the Cusco school hang along the nave and two colonial organs sit in the choir. Restoration over the past two decades has brought the colour back. It is the best known stop on the route usually called the Andean baroque circuit, with Huaro and Canincunca nearby.

What you actually see

• The painted ceiling - a coffered and decorated wooden roof over the whole nave.
• The gilded main altarpiece - carved and gold-leafed, filling the east end.
• The murals - painted walls and a frescoed arch, restored over recent years.
• The colonial organs - two early instruments in the choir loft.

When to go

May to September, in line with the rest of the Cusco region. It is a working parish, so it closes for mass and for lunch, and hours are shorter on Sundays. Combine it with Tipón, Pikillacta or the other two churches on the same route, since the church itself takes half an hour and the drive takes longer than that.

Honest expectations

Photography inside is forbidden and the lighting is kept deliberately low for conservation, so this is a place you look at rather than shoot. The joint ticket covers three churches and costs more than most people expect for three short visits. The village outside is unremarkable. If you have already seen a lot of colonial church interiors, this one will still surprise you, but the drive is the price.

Nearby

Tipón, Pikillacta and the churches of Huaro and Canincunca are on the same road.