Zaña

Zaña was founded in 1563 and grew wealthy on sugar worked by enslaved Africans, wealthy enough that it was sacked by English pirates in 1686 and rich enough to keep going afterwards, until the river flooded catastrophically in 1720 and the town was largely abandoned. What remains are the roofless shells of large conventual churches - San Agustín, La Merced, San Francisco - standing among fields, arches and vaults open to the sky. The other reason to come is the Museo Afroperuano, opened in 2005, which documents the history of enslavement in the Lambayeque valleys, the culture that grew from it, and the town's continuing Afro-Peruvian community, one of the oldest in the country. It is a small museum making a case that is not made in many places in Peru, and it works with the community on music and oral history.

History

Baltasar Rodríguez founded the town in November 1563 as Santiago de Miraflores de Zaña, a way-station between Piura and Trujillo that grew rich on sugar worked by enslaved Africans. The English pirate Edward Davis raided it in March 1686, and on 15 March 1720 an El Niño flood swept the city, after which most Spaniards left; slavery was abolished in 1854, the Afro-Peruvian Museum opened in 2005, and in 2017 UNESCO named it a Site of Remembrance of Slavery and African Cultural Heritage (Wikipedia, Zaña).

Highlights

• The ruined churches - roofless conventual shells with arches and vaults standing.
• The Afro-Peruvian museum - the history of enslavement and the culture that followed.
• The community - one of Peru's oldest Afro-descendant populations.
• The 1720 flood - the event that ended the town's colonial prosperity.

When to go

Year-round; hot from December to April. Two to three hours including the museum. Check museum hours - it is small and community-linked.

Before you go

The ruins are unfenced and unstable in places - do not climb. Little signage at the church sites. The museum is small and mainly in Spanish. Hot and unshaded among the ruins.

Nearby

Chiclayo is north-west; the Zaña valley and Cerro Corbacho are inland.

Key facts