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The religious Order of Mercedaries was founded in
1223 by Saint Peter Nolasco who was a native of France, with the main
aim of redeeming the captives. In Qosqo the church and convent were
founded towards 1535 by Fray Sebastián de Castañeda, over a land facing
the Kusipata Square. The land was donated by Marquis Francisco Pizarro
with all the attributes that conferred to him the right of victors. By
the beginning it was attempted to build a majestic church and convent
that were destroyed by the earthquake in 1650; the present-day building
belongs to the subsequent years.
The church has two entrance gates; the main one faces the Espinar Square.
It has just one bell tower with a very Cusquenian baroque. The church
has today the title of Minor Basilica granted by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
Also over here, the architects were Spanish but it was completely made
by Quechua stone masons. Inside, it has a wide principal nave and two
relatively narrow aisles. Its High Altar is neoclassical with six solid
gilded Corinth columns and the image of the Lady of Mercy in the central
part. More over, it has twelve other altarpieces with different images
and canvases, standing out the Lord of Huanca and the Cross of the
Urraca Priest covered with plates of beaten silver. Besides, over here
is the image of the Lord of Tambo de Montero, that according to
tradition was whipped every Friday night by the Qosqo's Jewish people
that met in the house of a Portuguese merchant. The church has also a
high choir. Inside the crypt located under the church's High Altar are
buried remains of Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the Marquis and those of
Francisco de Carbajal whose heads were fried in oil and sent to Lima;
the body of Diego de Almagro the Old (Pizarro's partner), and that of
Almagro the Young (Diego's son).
The first convent's cloister is the most beautiful and surprising in the
complex; it has a square shape, two floors, and archways with thick and
solid rectangular pillars that show nice carved Corinth columns in their
front sides. It is in short, an elaborate and marvelous work made with
andesites. The second cloister is relatively simple and earlier than
1650. In the first cloister are canvases representing the life of Saint
Peter Nolasco painted by Ignacio Chacon towards 1763. Basilio Santa Cruz
Pumacallo made the canvas representing "Saint Lawrence" decapitated.
Besides, Basilio Pacheco painted the enormous canvas that represents the
order's benefactors which is located by the stairway leading to the
second floor; in the second story is also a collection of canvases
representing the Saint Augustine's life that were moved after the
destruction of the Saint Augustine church and convent. In this cloister
is also the enclosure serving as museum for the convent's valuables;
among which is the famous Monstrance of la Merced (a vessel in which the
consecrated Host is exposed to receive the veneration of the faithful)
that is 1.2 mts. (3'4") high and weights 22.2 kg. (49 lb.). The sun of
the monstrance was made in gold with a baroque style by Luis Ayala de
Olmos in the XVII century. Lower is the image of Our Lady of Mercy and
even lower a pretty mermaid staying on her knees whose body is formed by
a pearl that looks like a woman's breast and belly. Lower is the
pedestal that was made by Manuel Piedra by the first years of the XIX
century with a French neoclassical style in which the central part has
an Easter Lamb and lower two pelicans representing Christianity.
Alfonsina Barrionuevo wrote that " ... It has one thousand five hundred
eighteen diamonds and fine gems, six hundred fifteen pearls, one
amethyst, one topaz, three emeralds, many dozens of rubies and some
other precious stones.". More over, in this enclosure there are
different mainly anonymous canvases among which are the "Virgin's
Coronation" painted by Bernardo Bitti; the "Holy Family" ascribed to
Rubens and another "Virgin's Coronation" and a small "Holy Family"
ascribed to Diego Quispe T'ito. Also over here are manuscripts on
parchment, a small Christ carved in ivory, precious metal jewels such as
crowns, incense burners, candelabra, etc. There are also Chinese jars
and 8 chasubles embroidered with gold and silver threads among which is
that belonging to Fray Vicente Valverde (Pizarro's partner). In this
cloister is the Scriptures Room where there are many other canvases; in
one side of its entrance is an interesting canvas made by Ignacio Chacon
representing Virgin Mary nursing at the same time a baby Jesus Christ
and Saint Peter Nolasco. Also in this first cloister is the famous Fray
Francisco Salamanca's cell. He was native from Oruro in present-day
Bolivia, whose portrait is found by the entrance and who became famous
by the first decades of XVIII century as a great orator, poet, musician,
painter and composer of Christmas carols in Quechua and Aymara. He
passed his last 30 years in confinement in that dark, humid cell,
keeping the small organ made by himself and the murals he painted.
Tradition tells that he used to go out just at midnight of Fridays
carrying on his back the cross that today is in front of his cell; he
died in 1737.
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