Casa del Moral

Casa del Moral is one of the best-preserved examples of Arequipa's civil baroque, built around 1730 in sillar, the white volcanic stone the whole old city is made of. Its portal is the reason to look: a dense carved composition combining Spanish heraldry with Andean elements - pumas with snakes issuing from their mouths, crowns, mermaids playing charangos, the mestizo iconography that characterises this school of carving and that appears nowhere in Spain. The house is named after an old mulberry tree in the courtyard. Inside are rooms furnished in period style, colonial paintings of the Cusco school, and a collection of early maps including sixteenth and seventeenth-century engravings of South America. The roof terrace gives a view over the sillar rooftops to Misti and Chachani. It belongs to a bank foundation and is maintained as a house museum.

What you actually see

• The portal - carved pumas, crowns and charango-playing mermaids in white sillar.
• The mestizo carving - Andean iconography in a Spanish baroque frame.
• The map collection - early engraved maps of South America.
• The roof view - sillar rooftops with Misti and Chachani behind.

When to go

Year-round. Forty-five to ninety minutes. Check hours in advance; the house closes over lunch and on some public holidays.

Honest expectations

Small - a courtyard and a handful of rooms. Furnishings are period-style arrangements rather than the family's own. Photography rules vary by room. The portal, which is the highlight, is visible free from the street.

Nearby

Santa Catalina is east; the Plaza de Armas is a short walk south.