Santa Catalina Monastery

Santa Catalina was founded in 1579 and occupies more than twenty thousand square metres behind high sillar walls - effectively a small town of streets, squares, kitchens, cloisters and cells, painted in deep ochre, blue and terracotta. It was a Dominican convent for the daughters of wealthy Spanish families, who entered with dowries and, for the first three centuries, with servants; accounts of its worldliness led to a reforming prioress being sent from Europe in 1871 to impose stricter observance. It opened to the public only in 1970, when the city required it to install electricity and water and the community sold part of the complex to pay for the work. About twenty nuns still live in a closed northern section. The volcanic sillar construction, painted rather than left white, is what makes the interiors photograph the way they do, and the site is the most visited thing in Arequipa.

What you actually see

• The painted streets - lanes and squares in ochre, blue and terracotta inside the walls.
• The cells - private quarters, kitchens and courtyards of the wealthy novices.
• The 1871 reform - the point at which the convent's worldly regime was ended.
• The living community - about twenty nuns in a closed section still.

When to go

Year-round. Late afternoon light is best for the painted lanes, and some evenings the complex opens by candlelight. Two to three hours; most people underestimate it.

Honest expectations

The ticket is among the most expensive in Peru. Busy from mid-morning with cruise and tour groups. The complex is large and confusing without a guide. The nuns' section is closed and not visible.

Nearby

The Plaza de Armas and the cathedral are two blocks south; Casa del Moral is west.