Cuzco

Cuzco, officially and legally Cusco (in Southern Quechua: Qusqu or Qosqo, pronounced [ ˈqo̝s.qɔ]), is a city in southeastern Peru located on the eastern slope of the Andes, in the basin of the Huatanay River, a tributary of the Vilcanota. It is the capital of the department of Cusco and, furthermore, as declared in the Peruvian Constitution, it is the "historical capital" of the country.

According to INEI, the city is the seventh most populous in Peru, and in 2017 had a population of 437,538 inhabitants.

Formerly it was the capital of the Inca Empire and one of the most important cities of the Viceroyalty of Peru. During the viceregal era, under the sovereignty of the Spanish crown, various churches, universities, palaces and baroque and neoclassical squares were built. These constructions are the attractions that make the city the main tourist destination in the country. It was declared a National Historical Monument in 1972 and a World Heritage Site in 1983 by Unesco. And it is usually called, due to the large number of monuments it possesses, the "Rome of America".

Toponymy

Carriz portal in the Plaza de Armas.

Nightlight of the city.

The original form of the place name, as it was found in Cuzco Quechua from the time of the conquest of the Inca Empire, must have been, as in current Cuzco Quechua, /qusqu/ ['qos.qɔ]. It is estimated that the place name had an Aymaraic origin, from the phrase qusqu wanka ('peñón de la lechuza') from the legend of the Ayar brothers, where Ayar Auca occupies the site of Cuzco flying with its own wings to perch on a rock in the area and become a mark of occupation becoming lithified:

"Go there flying (because they say he was born wings), and sitting there taking possession in the same seat where it looks like that mojón, because we will then go to pop and live." Ayar Auca, heard the words of his brother, stood on his wings and went to the said place that Manco Capac commanded him, and sitting there became a stone and became a sign of possession, which in the ancient language of this valley is called a cup, from where the name of Cuzco remained to that place until today.

Juan Díez de Betanzos

This name gradually lost its etymology in popular knowledge, becoming obscure, as Betanzos himself also cites:

“...to which people [of up to thirty small houses straws and ruins] called the dwellers of him, from his antiquity, Cozco, and what this name means Cozco do not know how to declare, more than ansi was formerly named.”

A totally different etymology was proposed by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who states that:

The city of Cozco, which in the particular language of the Incas wants to dezir ombligo of the land, was put by the point or center [of the Tahuantinsuyu]: they called it with good semejança ombligo, because all Peru is long and narrow as a human body, and that city is almost in the middle

Real Comments of the Incas, Book II, Cap. XI

This version has been mythologized in the folklore of the region; however, he takes the same ideas from the myth of the Omphalos of Delphi, just like the Dominican Diego Durán did in History of the Indies of New Spain and Islands of Tierra Firme, this time for the place name of Mexico, for the aforementioned author, 'the navel and the heart of the world'. Contemporary philologists consider the etymology offered by the Inca to be wrong and, although the original meaning and etymology of the place names are still in dispute, they generally accept that they are probably not of Quechua origin and consider the Aymarista hypothesis as the most acceptable.

History of the spelling of the place name and modern spelling divergence

The first image of Cuzco in Europe. Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala. First new chonic and good governance.

The original Spanish form of the place name is ⟨Cuzco⟩, which corresponds to the way the conquistadores understood [& #39;qos.qɔ], understanding the uvular plosive [q] as the Castilian velar /k/ (represented by the letter ⟨c⟩), [o] as /u/ Castilian (⟨ u⟩) and [ɔ] as Castilian /o̞/ (⟨o⟩); in the same way who wrote ⟨México⟩ because in this way it represented the spelling of the time the pronunciation ['me.ʃi.ko ]. The writing with zeta ⟨z⟩ of Cuzco fully corresponds to the state of sibilants, both in Spanish and in Cuzco Quechua of the time, and to a solid Castilian orthography for the same period, in such a way that he wrote with ⟨z⟩ because it was pronounced [s] and not with the apical sound [ş] that had then and still has in Spanish from Spain the grapheme ⟨s⟩:

we are here, once again, in the face of two types of sybilants: a dorsal, represented by ≤, c(e, i), z plan, and another, equivalent to the Spanish apex, registered with θs,ss. Well, that the Cuzqueño dialect had two sybilants is something that does not surprise anyone who knows the central and northern varieties of the language. [...] Thus, as well as the jaujina variety distinguishes two sybilants: /s/ dorsal and /š/ palatal, so also the 17th century squash differentiated two of them, only that, in the present case, it is not easy to give with the equivalent of the second of the cited ones. Would this have been a shovel /š/ like jaujina? It does not seem, from the moment that the same Gonçález Holguín advances to warn us, in the initial pages of his work, that in the Cuzqueña variety “no ay vso” of the letter “to the reader”, op. cit), and, as is known, this graph represented the palatal sibilante [š]. Therefore, discarding this possibility, it is not adventurous to argue that the nature of the joint of the second sibilante cuzqueña must have been very close to that of the apical castellana. [...] Of all this now it is perfectly understandable why, in order to register the name of the imperial capital, he lay his hand, not of the ≤32 but of the θz, since then, as right now, the toponym was pronounced [qosqo] and not [qoşqo].

Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino.

Early chroniclers noted the name of the city almost invariably as <Cuzco> or <Cozco>, which in the Spanish spelling of the XVI century, in the process of readjusting the sibilant consonants, better they approximated the sound of Qusqu [ˈqo̝s.qo]. Thus, we can find Cuzco in the Reales Cédulas de Carlos I, in the chronicles of Francisco de Jerez (1534), in different documents of the Gaceta de Madrid and in the maps 19th century (since 1815) and 20th century (until at least 1976). It is from this written form that it passes to the other European languages and for what it endures until now as the most used form in Spanish outside of Peru. The spelling <Cusco>, however, is recorded in several colonial documents, although it is very rare among learned texts. It can be found in the maps that illustrate the annexes Peru in the historical maps and the city of Pisco in the historical maps of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries until 1814, in addition to the 1597 map that illustrates this article (in Latin).

The graphic form of <Cuzco> it remained predominant until the 20th century. At the beginning of the XX century, local and Lima intellectuals, many of them influenced by indigenismo, such as Rafael Larco Herrera, Luis Eduardo Valcárcel, Horacio Urteaga and Carlos Alberto Romero wrote important texts with the spelling <Cusco>. In the same city of Cuzco, by proposal of the American Institute of Art, with the support of the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua, on March 12, 1971 the Municipality issued an ordinance where it changed the official form of the city council of <Cuzco> to <Cusco>, proscribing the previous form. In 1986, the Minister of Education on duty, at the formal request of the Cuzco mayor, promulgated a Ministerial Resolution making this spelling of <Cusco> at the central government level. This change resulted in the preference of the new script over the old in official texts. Subsequently, on June 23, 1990, the Municipal Council of Cusco approved a new device, the municipal agreement no. 078, by which it was provided: "Institute the use of the name <Qosqo>, instead of the word Cusco, in all documents of the Municipal Government of Cusco".

Since then, the writing <Cusco> It is widespread in Peru and is usually considered the most valid by most of the city's population, despite the fact that some philologists and researchers such as the linguist Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino consider it apocryphal.

History

Map of what Cuzco was in the inca times. You can appreciate the form of feline that is attributed to having in those times the Huacaypata explanade as well as the Saphy and Tullumayo rivers that limited it.

Foundation and Inca times

According to the legend collected by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo migrated from Lake Titicaca on the advice of their father, the Sun god. They threw a golden javelin; there where it was nailed they founded a new town. The chosen place was called Cuzco:

The first stop they made in this valley, the Inca dixo, was in the hill called Huanacauti, to the midday of this city. There the gold bar hincar prostrated on the ground, the qual very easily sank to the first blow they hit with it, which they saw no more. In this valley sends our father the sun that we give up and make our seat and abode, to fulfill his will, Therefore, king and sister, it is fitting that each one on his part will summon and attract these people to the doctrine and do the good that our father sends us.

Chapter XVI: Fundación del Cozco imperial city, in Real Comments of the Incas, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

Through archaeological and anthropological data, the true process of the occupation of Cuzco has been studied. The consensus suggests that the collapse of the kingdom of Tiahuanaco caused the migration of its people. This group of about 500 men would have gradually established themselves in the valley of the Huatanay River, a process that would culminate in the founding of Cuzco on the banks of the of the Saphy River. The approximate date is unknown, but thanks to vestiges it is agreed that the site where the city is located was already inhabited 3,000 years ago.

The toponym with a long s (Curíco) on a 1597 map of Cornelius van Wytfliet.

Ancient chronicles such as those of the chronicler Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1530-1592) affirm the existence of ethnic groups in the valley of Cuzco before the rise of the Inca Empire. Said author mentions the Guallas, the Sahuasiray and the Antasayas as the oldest settlers; while the alcavistas, copalimaytas and culunchimas are considered more recent inhabitants. It is also known that the Ayarmacas inhabited the region, being the only ones that were not subdued by the Incas, becoming their main rivals in the domain of the region.

Cusco was the capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of the Incas and continued to be so at the beginning of the imperial era, becoming the most important city in the Andes and South America. This centralism gave rise to it and it became the main cultural focus and axis of religious worship.

Representation of the four divisions of the Inca Empire (or Tahuantinsuyu), which departed from Cuzco, the capital city in the form of puma.

The ruler Pachacútec is credited with making Cuzco a spiritual and political center. Pachacutec came to power in 1438, and he and his son Túpac Yupanqui spent five decades organizing and reconciling the different tribal groups under his rule, including the Lupacas and the Colla. During the period of Pachacútec and Túpac Yupanqui, the domain of Cuzco reached as far as Quito, in the north, and as far as the Maule River, in the south, culturally integrating the inhabitants of 4,500 km of mountain ranges.

It is also believed that the original design of the city is the work of Pachacútec. The plan of ancient Cuzco has the shape of an outlined puma, with the central plaza Haucaypata in the position that the animal's chest would occupy. The feline's head would be located on the hill where the Sacsayhuamán fortress is.

The city of Cuzco was designed as the seat of power and its internal organization corresponded to a traditional Inca urban division, it was located in a central strategic point of the empire, in whose centrality the four roads that linked theirs converge.

Hispanic foundation and colonial times

Cuzco in a foil of Civitates orbis terrarum (second half of the century)XVI)

The Spanish conquerors knew from their arrival in what is now Peruvian territory, that their goal was to take the city of Cuzco, capital of the empire.

After capturing the Inca Atahualpa in Cajamarca, they began their march towards Cusco. In February 1533, Hernando de Soto and Pedro del Barco left Cajamarca for Cusco, as indicated by Garcilaso and López de Gómara, although Pedro Pizarro and Rubén Vargas Ugarte disagree on the entity of the emissaries. This first expedition returned to Cajamarca between the end of May and the first half of June 1533 with enormous loads of gold and silver, as told by the chronicler Vargas Ugarte. On August 11, 1533, Francisco Pizarro began his journey from Cajamarca to the Cusco accompanied by Túpac Hualpa and, although Garcilaso points out that it is another character, the warrior Calcuchimac. On this trip, Manco Inca joined Francisco Pizarro's entourage and, with his help, defeated the hosts of Quisquis who controlled the city, achieving that on November 15, 1533, the conquistadors took over the city. valuable objects by the Spaniards, being that the distribution in Cusco was more substantial than that of Cajamarca, amounting to 700'113,880 pesos.

On March 23, 1534, Francisco Pizarro refounded the city of Cuzco in the Spanish style, establishing as Plaza de Armas the location that still maintains the modern city and which was also the main square during the Incan period and which was surrounded by of the palaces of those who were the Inca sovereigns. Construction of the cathedral began on the site facing north. Pizarro gave the city the name The Very Noble and Great City of Cuzco. The following day, March 24, 1534, the city council was founded, naming Beltrán de Castro and Pedro de Candia and eight aldermen as the two ordinary mayors. It was established that the mayors and regidores should be renewed annually. Finally, in October of that year the distribution of the lots among the conquerors was carried out.

General view of the city. Old print from 1880.

Superposed architectures of the Coricancha, the Convent of Santo Domingo and the current era.

Chapel of the Sagrada Familia, next to the Cathedral. This building belonged to the Inquisition and the public executions of the convicted took place in front of it.

Part of the nobility of the Inca Empire maintained a struggle during the first years of the viceroyalty. In 1536 Manco Inca started fighting against him by besieging Cusco for a year and created the dynasty of the Incas of Vilcabamba . This dynasty met its end in 1572 when the last Inca Túpac Amaru I was defeated, captured and beheaded.

The city became an important commercial and cultural center of the central Andes since it was located on the routes between Lima and the mining area of Upper Peru. However, the viceregal administration preferred the location of Lima (founded two years after Cuzco in 1535) and mainly its proximity to the natural port of what would be El Callao to establish the head of its domains in South America. The city is already mentioned in the first known map of Peru.

Cusco was taken as the head of the viceregal administration in the south of the country; in its beginnings, it was the most important location to the detriment of the recently founded cities of Arequipa or Moquegua. Its population was mainly indigenous belonging to the Inca aristocracy who were respected some of their charters and privileges. A good number of Spaniards also settled. At that time, the process of cultural miscegenation that today marks the city began. The city had an important textile manufacturing at pre-industrial levels. Likewise, it was an obligatory step on the commercial route that linked the capital of the viceroyalty with the Río de la Plata region.

During the viceregal development stage (16th and 17th centuries) the city had a great movement of church construction standing out the Cathedral (built between 1560 and 1664), La Compañía (built in 1576), La Merced (first half of the 16th century), San Francisco (between 1572 and 1662). Likewise, the colonial hospitals of San Bartolomé (later Hospital and Convent of San Juan de Dios) were built for the care of Spaniards and the Hospital de Naturales. In civil architecture, the Admiral's Palace, the Archbishop's Palace and the House of the Marquises of San Lorenzo de Valle Umbroso stand out. In education, during those years the schools of San Francisco de Borja were opened for the education of the children of the caciques, the Colegio de San Bernardo, the Seminary of San Antonio Abad, the University of San Ignacio de Loyola and the University of Saint Anthony Abbot.

Urban development was interrupted by several earthquakes that destroyed the city on more than one occasion. In 1650 a violent earthquake destroyed almost all the colonial-era buildings. During this earthquake, the effigy of the Lord of Earthquakes gained great importance, which is still taken out annually in procession today.

As a consequence of the Bourbon reforms, in 1780 the city of Cuzco was convulsed by the movement initiated by the cacique José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Túpac Amaru II, who rose up against the Spanish administration. His uprising was put down after several months of fighting in which he put the viceregal authorities stationed in Cuzco in check. Tupac Amaru II was defeated, taken prisoner and executed along with his entire family in the Plaza de Armas of Cuzco. Still today, next to the Church of the Company of Jesus, the chapel that served as a prison for the hero remains. This movement spread rapidly throughout the Andes and marked the beginning of the South American emancipatory process. By virtue of this revolution, the Royal Audience of Cusco was established and there was a migration of the main Spanish families to the cities of Lima and Arequipa, fearful of indigenous reactions. These migrations, together with the commercial decline generated by the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata that took away a leading role from the city as a point of passage for travelers and merchants, explain the decline suffered by the city in the XIX.

In 1814 there was a new uprising against the viceregal administration. The Rebellion of Cusco started in 1814 by the Angulo Brothers and brigadier Mateo Pumacahua, a mestizo from Cusco who had faced the forces of Túpac Amaru II, tried to start a government junta in the city to unite the uprising with the process started in Buenos Aires to achieve the independence of Peru. This uprising was put down by Viceroy José de Abascal in less than a year. Despite this rebellion, Cusco was the last royalist bastion of Peru, maintaining its condition of fidelity to the King of Spain until 1824, despite the fact that independence was decreed in 1821. Cusco became the last colonial headquarters during the viceroy's command. José de la Serna who held that position from this city between December 31, 1821 and December 1824. During that time, the Royal Army was stationed in Cusco and other institutions such as the Mint and the printing press functioned.

Only after the defeat in the battle of Ayacucho was known, on December 22, 1824, the Cabildo of Cusco recognized the capitulation of Ayacucho and agreed to receive Agustín Gamarra, from Cusco, as a new authority, who would hold the position of prefect. In this way, the colonial administration ended. On December 25, 1824, the patriotic troops entered the city under the command of Gamarra who received political command from the last mayor governor Antonio María Álvarez and prepared the reception of Simón Bolívar who would arrive in Cusco in 1825.

Republican era

The 19th century

Arc de Santa Clara built in 1835 commemorating the installation of the Peruvian-Boliviana Confederation

Peru declared its independence in 1821 and the city of Cuzco maintained its importance within the political-administrative organization of the country. Indeed, the department of Cuzco was created on the basis of the old intendancy, including even the Amazonian territories up to the limit - which had not yet been established - with Brazil. The city was established as the capital of the department according to the norm issued by the provisional government of José de San Martín, law of April 26, 1822, although the territory remained in loyal hands of the King of Spain. After the battle of Ayacucho, when Viceroy La Serna capitulated against Simón Bolívar, the Royal Audience of Cuzco ignored this capitulation and appointed Pío Tristán, who was in Arequipa, as viceroy of Peru on December 9, 1824, but this I quit. It was not until December 22, 1824, that the Cuzco Cabildo recognized the capitulation of Ayacucho and agreed to receive General Agustín Gamarra, a native of Cusco, as prefect, who took office on December 24 of that year, ending the administration of Cuzco. The Royal Court of Cusco gave rise to the Superior Court of Justice of Cusco.

In 1825, the city received a visit from Simón Bolívar. During the Venezuelan's visit, the creation of the Colleges of Sciences and Arts was established, which would concentrate all education in the city, replacing the colleges of San Francisco de Borja and San Bernardo as well as the University of San Antonio Abad. The Colegio de Educandas for the education of women was also created. Later, during the validity of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, the city became one of the main bastions of the ephemeral South-Peruvian State. The Arco de Santa Clara symbolizes the importance of the city within that political situation. After this stage, the city suffered a new economic and demographic decline, even reaching the point of being invaded during the War with Bolivia in 1842.

The rest of the XIX century meant a decline of Cusco in every sense. Thus, from the end of the XVIII century until the 1870s, the city's population decreased significantly from 40,000 inhabitants to just over This decrease is attributed to the extensive participation of Cusco in the wars for independence, as well as the plagues (typhoid between 1855 and 1856, smallpox in 1885) that struck a city that, at the same time, was It gained the fame of being one of the dirtiest cities in America according to both Peruvian and foreign travelers and chroniclers. Likewise, in the economic field, with the opening of the markets after independence and the import of English textiles, the Cusco textile industry - the main industry of the town - languished as it was unable to compete with the main product imported from England during the industrial revolution despite the fact that, around 1830, a slight industrialization began through the export of alpaca and sheep wool and the installation in 1861 of the first textile plant in Peru in the nearby district of Lucre. In 1872, the first of six breweries that would settle in the region was established and would later give rise to the Cervecería del Sur.

In the last years of the XIX century, two events stand out: the Peruvian civil war of 1894 that led to a confrontation in the same city between the pierolista montoneras and the cacerista army of the south that resulted in the defeat of the cacerista troops and the escape of the prefect Pedro Mas and the beginning of an intellectual process that would have its main effects in the student revolution of 1909 and the birth of the Cuzco School whose antecedent can be seen in the foundation of the Cusco Scientific Center in 1897.

The 20th century

Starting in the XX century, the city began urban development at a faster rate than had been experienced up to that time. On September 13, 1908, the railway arrived in Cusco and took it out of the isolation in which it found itself, finally allowing it a modern communication channel with the ocean. However, despite this, the travel time between Lima and Cusco was similar to that taken by a trip from Cusco to Buenos Aires thanks to the challenge of crossing the Andes mountain range. The city began its growth and began to spread to the neighboring districts of Santiago and Wanchaq. In the first half of the XX century, for health reasons, the channeling of the Saphy, Huatanay and Huatanay rivers was completed. Tullumayu. This canalization process gave rise to the opening of modern roads such as Saphy and Choquechaka streets and Tullumayo and El Sol avenues that linked the central neighborhoods of the city and allowed development and urban growth to the south and southeast.

In 1911, Hiram Bingham's expedition left the city to explore the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. The discovery of Machu Picchu would take a few more years to become the great catalyst for the development of the Cusco tourism industry as it is today. In 1934, cleaning and enhancement work was carried out by the commission of the IV Centennial of Cuzco directed by Luis E. Valcárcel. The opening of a highway gave rise to the beginning of an incipient tourism. By 1942 there was already a hostel near the ruins, but it was in the 1950s and 1970s that Machu Picchu began to become the tourist attraction it is today.

In 1913, a private company was founded in Cusco with the purpose of providing electricity to the city. A hydroelectric power station was installed in the town of Corimarca that would use the waters of the Chinchero lagoon (Piuray) that generated a total of 600 kilowatts at 3000 volts of voltage. In October 1914 the first tests were carried out and on December 24 In 1914, electric light was inaugurated in Cusco, achieved thanks to private capital.

On May 23, 1921, the first flight from Lima to Cusco was made by the Italian aviator Enrique Rolandi. From this fact, Cusco saw in air transport the definitive solution to its lack of communication problem, which is why several initiatives were carried out for this purpose. The day after Rolandi's arrival in Cusco, the Pro-Aviation Executive Central Committee met and agreed to buy an airplane that is owned by the city with Rolandi as technical advisor. The aircraft was an Italian biplane fighter from the S.V.A. baptized with the name "Cuzco". It was in this plane that on September 1, 1925, the Cusco aviator Alejandro Velasco Astete arrived again in the city from Lima crossing the Andes. Both the aviator and the plane suffered a fatal accident on September 25, 1925 when he tried to land in the city of Puno after flying from Cusco. During the 1930s, the prefect of Cusco, General Jorge Vargas, expropriated the lands of Chachacomayoc and La Pólvora and established the first airport in the city with a dirt runway there, which served until 1967. Today that area is occupied by the Park Zonal, the Coliseo Cerrado Casa de la Juventud and the Adolfo Guevara Velasco National Hospital in the Wanchaq district. The first passenger and cargo service between Cusco and Lima was established in 1937. A few years later, the Faucett company began to fly with DC-3 and DC-4 aircraft. In the 1940s, the air transport service became regular. In 1964, the Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport was inaugurated, which serves the city to this day and is the second busiest airport in Peru.

Starting in 1944, June 24 of each year was established as "Cusco Day" and the custom of staging either in the Plaza de Armas or in the ruins of Sacsayhuamán, the Inti Raymi. Likewise, for that year the anthem of Cusco is established.

On May 21, 1950, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale took place, which caused great damage to the population and buildings of the city, mainly its churches and colonial convents. After that earthquake there was a mobilization of the Peruvian state and Unesco who sent the American George Kubler to prepare a report and coordinate the reconstruction activities. The Peruvian government issued Law No. 11551 that declared it to be of public interest and necessity national the reconstruction of the city and established at the national level a tax on the consumption of cigarettes to support said reconstruction. In 1952 the reconstruction work of the city began, which implied a period of modernization of it.

As part of this modernization, the tourist development of the city began. For 1954 the arrival of 6902 tourists was counted. In 1964 there were already 38,939 and in 1971 there were 55,482. By 1975, the number reached 176,625 tourists, a number that was greater than the total population of the city, which was estimated at 174,000.

In 1972, by Supreme Resolution of the Ministry of Education, the Monumental Zone of Cuzco was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation. The limits of this zone were extended in 1974 and in 1991. In 1983, during the VII session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in the Italian city of Florence, from December 5 to 9, 2019, it was resolved to declare the city of Cusco as Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The declaration established, within the city of Cusco, an area that was established as the protected area and an immediate buffer zone to the previous one. On April 5, 1986, an earthquake shook the city, causing extensive damage to the monumental area.

In the 1990s, during the administration of mayor Daniel Estrada Pérez, the city underwent a new beautification process through the restoration of monuments and the construction of plazas, fountains and monuments. Likewise, thanks to the efforts of this authority, various recognitions were achieved such as the declaration as "Historical Capital of Peru" contained in the text of the Political Constitution of Peru of 1993. It was also arranged, the change of the coat of arms of Cusco leaving aside the colonial coat of arms and adopting the "Sol de Echenique" Like a new shield. Additionally, it was proposed to change the official name of the city by adopting the Quechua word Qosqo, but this change was reversed after a few years.

A panoramic view of the city of Cuzco from Sacsayhuamán.

Geography and climate

Average termography of air in meteo box, 1937 to 2008 (NASA).

Cuzco extends through the valley formed by the Huatanay River and the surrounding hills. Its climate is generally dry and temperate. It has two defined seasons: a dry one between April and October, with sunny days, cold nights with frosts and an average temperature of 13 °C; and another rainy, from November to March, average temperature 12 °C. On sunny days, the temperature reaches 20 °C, although the light wind from the mountain is usually cold.

Average climate parameters of Cuzco, Peru
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	27.8	27.2	26.1	26.1	28.9	25	25	25	27.2	28.9	27.8	30	30
Average temperature (°C)	18.8	18.8	19.1	19.7	19.7	19.4	19.2	19.9	20.1	20.9	20.6	20.8	19.75
Average temperature (°C)	13.8	13.8	13.7	13.2	11.9	11.1	10.6	11.9	13.1	14.3	14.6	14.1	13
Temp. medium (°C)	6.6	6.6	6.3	5.1	2.7	0.5	0.2	1.7	4	5.5	6.0	6.5	4.31
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	1.1	2.2	1.7	−1.4	−2.4	−5	−6.5	−4	−1.1	−1.1	0	0	−6.5
Rains (mm)	145.3	133.7	107	43.2	8.7	1.5	4	8.6	21.8	39.4	71.9	122.7	707.8
Hours of sun	143	121	170	210	239	228	257	236	195	198	195	158	2350
Relative humidity (%)	64	66	65	61	55	48	47	46	51	51	52	59	55.4
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Urbanism

Architectural heritage

Due to its antiquity and importance, the city center preserves many buildings, squares and streets from pre-Columbian times as well as colonial constructions. That is why the city was declared in 1972 as «National Cultural Heritage» by Supreme Resolution No. 2900-72-ED. In 1983, during At the VII session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee, it was resolved to declare this area as a World Heritage Site, establishing a central area that constitutes the World Heritage Site itself and a buffer zone. Among the main sites of interest of the city are:

San Blas neighborhood

This neighborhood where artisans, workshops and craft shops are concentrated, is one of the most picturesque places in the city. Its streets are steep and narrow with old houses built by the Spanish on important Inca foundations. It has an attractive square and the oldest parish church in Cuzco, built in 1563, which has a carved wooden pulpit considered the highest artistic expression of the Cusco colonial era.

The Quechua name for this neighborhood is Toq'ocachi which means "the hole of salt".

Hatun Rumiyoc Street

This is the most visited by tourists. On Hatun Rumiyoq street ("De la Roca Mayor") was the palace of Inca Roca, which currently belongs to the Archbishop's Palace.

In this street that goes from the Plaza de Armas to the San Blas neighborhood, you can see the stone of the twelve angles.

La Merced Convent and Church

It was founded in 1536. The first Mercedarian complex was destroyed by the earthquake of 1650 and the reconstruction of the temple and convent was completed in 1675.

Its Baroque-Renaissance style cloisters stand out particularly as well as the choir stalls, colonial paintings and wood carvings.

You can also see a monstrance of gold and precious stones weighing 22 kilos and 130 centimeters high.

Cathedral

Actually, the first cathedral in Cuzco is the Iglesia del Triunfo, built in 1539 on the basis of the palace of Viracocha Inca. Currently, this church is an auxiliary chapel of the Cathedral.

Between the years 1560 and 1664, the cathedral basilica of this city was built on the Sunturwasi (house of the condor). For this, stone was reused as the main material, extracted from Inca buildings, served as nearby quarries, and red granite blocks from the Inca complex of Sacsayhuaman were also reused.

This great cathedral, with a Renaissance plan, presents late-Gothic, Baroque and Plateresque interiors, it has one of the most outstanding samples of colonial goldsmithing. Its carved wooden altars are equally important.

Since painting on canvas was developed in this city in the so-called "Cusco School of Painting," precisely in the cathedral you can see important samples of local artists of the time. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Cuzco.

It preserves an ovoid-shaped monolith, which represents the Inca god of Viracocha.

Main Square

Monument to the Inca, Plaza de Armas.

"Place of Joy" It was called in the time of the Incas, and it also included what is now the Plaza del Regocijo and the Plaza San Francisco. This square has been the scene of various important events in the history of the city, such as the first proclamation of the independence of Peru, by the Angulo brothers in 1814. Likewise, the square was the scene of the assassination of José Gabriel Túpac Amaru Túpac Amaru II, considered the first great leader of the Andean resistance to the Bourbon Reforms.

The Spaniards progressively built a varied stone archery in the square, with labor from Cuzco, which after reconstructions has survived to the present day. Here are the cathedral of Cuzco and the temple of La Compañía de Jesús, built on ancient Inca buildings. In the central part there is a pool crowned by the effigy of an Inca.

Currently, the Plaza de Armas of Cuzco is the scene of the various celebrations and civic actions of the city, highlighting the celebration of a part of the Intiraymi (Sun Festival) (June 24) with representation of the Inca festivities to the sun god; of the Corpus Christi festivities (variable: April, May, June) with a procession of different Catholic saints. The festivals of Cuzco (June) with representation of regional dances, and every Sunday the raising of the flags of Cuzco and Peru and commemorative marches; The Santuranticuy (purchase of saints) (December 24) is a pre-Christmas fair where handicrafts related to the Christian holiday of Christmas are traded.

Night picture of the Plaza de Armas of the city of Cuzco.

Church of the Society of Jesus

This church whose construction was started by the Jesuits in 1576 on the Amarucancha (neighborhood-building-temple of the Inca deity of the serpent) or palace of the Inca Huayna Cápac, is considered one of the best samples of the colonial baroque style on the continent American.

Its façade is made of carved stone, as can be seen in the photo, and its main altar is made of carved wood and covered with gold leaf. It was built over an underground chapel. Additionally, two chapels stand out, that of Lourdes and the old oratory of San Ignacio de Loyola.

This temple has a valuable collection of colonial canvases from the Cusco School.

Coricancha and Santo Domingo Convent

View of the Coricancha.

The Coricancha (Qorikancha: in runasimi, apple-temple-golden house) was the most important sanctuary dedicated to the Sun god at the time of the Inca Empire. It is said that This temple was called the "golden site" since all its walls had been covered with gold sheets by the Incas.

Based on this structure, the Renaissance-style Convent of Santo Domingo was built here. The building, with a single baroque tower, surpasses the other buildings in this city in height.

Inside there are magnificent Inca walls and a monolith in the center, as well as an important collection of paintings from the Cusco School of painting.

Inca urbanism

Stone of the twelve angles on Hatun Rumiyoq Street.

One of the characteristics that the Incas achieved with their urban plan in Cuzco was respect for the geographic matrix when building their fabric, since they responded with different design strategies to the rugged topography typical of the Andean zone to 3399 meters above sea level.

The relationship that is observed with the environment comes from a formal, cultural idea and taking into account the orientation. The Inca people believed in many gods, Inti, Pachamama, Huiracocha, among others; and these were personified in human forms. This formal belief that represented the divinities was transmitted to the first urban plans of the city of Cusco, in whose layout you could see the image of a puma, a symbol of power that made reference to the son of the creator god.

The streets and the entire urban layout followed an order that responded to the orientation of the sun, these concepts added to the integration of nature, the anti-destruction of natural objects with an urban structure subordinated to the topography of the land identified the shape to make a city of the Inca empire with the intention of taking over a place and adapting it to its design.

Symbols

Like various cities in the world and in Peru, Cusco has three officially established symbols: its flag, shield and anthem. The use of these symbols occurs especially in the month of June since June 24, the day on which the Inca festival of Inti Raymi is commemorated, is also celebrated on the day of the city.

Regarding the Shield, the Carlist shield of more than 450 years old is in disuse; For more than three decades, the Provincial Municipality of Cusco and other institutions have used the Sol de Echenique as a shield, because its characteristics refer to its Inca past.

Demographics

Calle Mantas, on the left you will appreciate the bell tower of the church of the Society of Jesus.

When the Spanish arrived, it is noted that the city had a population of approximately 40,000 inhabitants, while the surrounding towns raised that figure to almost 200,000. This number decreased significantly during the colony. However, until the middle of the XVIII century, it was one of the most populous cities on the continent and the second most populous city in Peru. The rebellion of Túpac Amaru II in 1780 as well as the rebellion of Túpac Katari in the Puno area in the following years caused the Creole population of Cusco to migrate to Lima and Arequipa seeking to be safe from a possible new uprising or possible war. During the last decades of the 18th century, the participation of Cusco on both sides of the wars for independence began a decline in the population that became more notorious in the XIX century and after the proclamation of the Republic. Thus, in 1825, when Simón Bolívar arrived in Cusco, it had a population of approximately 40,000 inhabitants and twenty years later, this number was reduced by half. The virtual isolation of the city, due to the lack of communication routes, kept the city almost depopulated, since in the 1910s only 13,500 inhabitants were registered, most of these inhabitants being mestizo and indigenous population.

In 2017, the city had a population of 437,538, according to the INEI census.

Evolution of the population

The evolution of the population of Cuzco can be observed in the following graph:

Figure of the evolution of the population of Cuzco between 1536 and 2017
Sources: Population 1536, 1794, 1825, 1876, 1903, 1912, 1924, 1940, 1950, 1972, 1993, 2007, Population 2014

Metropolitan Area

According to INEI, metropolitan Cuzco has 5 metropolitan municipalities. According to the census carried out in 2017, the metropolitan districts of Cuzco had a population of 437,538 inhabitants, which are distributed as follows:

Religious center

Cuzco was the center of the state cult of the Sun, seat of the main temple of the solar religion, the Coricancha (in Spanish) or Qurikancha (Quechua: gold enclosure), possessing the main Aqllawasi or house of the chosen ones of the sun, and the headquarters of the funeral clans of the different dead emperors or Panakas, also being the place of residence habitual of the ruling Inca, a living god, and of the high state clergy, represented by the Willka umu or high priest. Cuzco hosted the great mass ceremonies and imperial festivities, such as the Inti Raymi or Fiesta del Sol that continues to take place during the winter solstice –the solar new year– which is celebrated every June 24 on the Sacsayhuamán esplanade.

Currently, most of the population belongs to the Catholic Church, with Cuzco being the archiepiscopal seat.

Church and convent of Saint Catherine

Museo de Arte Religioso del Arzobispado

The Convent of Santo Domingo, built on the temple of the Coricancha.

Explanation of Sacsayhuamán, where the Inti Raymi is performed.

Economy

Trades in Cuzco.

The economic activity in Cuzco includes agriculture, especially corn and native tubers. The local industry is related to extractive activities and food and beverage products, such as beer, soft water, coffee, chocolate, among others. However, the relevant economic activity of its inhabitants is the reception of tourism, with increasingly better infrastructure and services. It is the second city in this country that has and maintains full employment.

Banks and finance companies

Politics

Throughout its history, Cusco has had a marked political importance. During the Incas it was the main political center of the region from which Tawantinsuyo was governed and where the political and religious elite lived. After its Spanish foundation, it lost prominence due to the decision of Francisco Pizarro to establish the capital of the new territories in the city of Lima due to its close access to the sea and communication with the metropolis. However, Cusco continued to be a important city within the viceregal political scheme to the point of being the first city in the entire Viceroyalty to have a bishop. Its participation in the commercial routes during the viceroyalty guaranteed its political importance, remaining the capital of the corregimiento established in these territories and, later, of the Intendancy of Cusco and, towards the end of the viceroyalty, of the Royal Audience of Cusco.

During the republic, the political role of Cusco languished due to its isolation from the capital, the coastline, and the trade routes of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, it maintained its status as the main city in southern Peru, although it was subordinated to the importance that Arequipa gained, better communicated with the rest of the country. Cusco always remained the capital of the department of Cusco

Politically, according to the results of the elections held in the second half of the XX century, Cusco has been a bastion of the leftist parties in Peru. In the 1970s and 1980s, the socialist leader Daniel Estrada Pérez brought together this political trend in his favor under the banner of the United Left alliance. After his death, Cusco has been a main city within the performance of parties such as the Peruvian Nationalist Party and the Broad Front for Justice, Life and Freedom, as well as regional movements. Traditional Peruvian parties such as the Partido Aprista Peruano and Acción Popular register eventual electoral victories while those that represent a right-wing political position such as the Partido Popular Cristiano and Fujimorismo itself have had little presence among the elected authorities.

Transport and communications

Airports

Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport

Landing point at Cuzco Airport.

Opened on July 22, 1967, the airport located between the districts of Wanchaq and San Sebastián and managed by the state company CORPAC S.A. It receives daily flights mainly from the city of Lima. More than 1,700,000 people pass through this airport annually^{[citation required]}. It was named in honor of the Peruvian pilot Alejandro Velasco Astete who was the first person to fly across the Andes in 1925 when he made the first flight from Lima to Cuzco. That same year, at an air show in the city of Puno, he lost control of his plane and died on impact.

The airport is the main gateway to the city of Cuzco and is the airport with the highest airflow in southern Peru. The Cusco airport is equipped to serve tourists who visit the imperial city. It was the first in the country in which boarding bridges or sleeves were installed. The runway is paved to the highest standards, with a length of 3,400 meters and a width of 45. It is perfectly capable of receiving Boeing 757-200 aircraft according to one of the CORPAC reports.

The city daily receives numerous flights from cities such as: Lima, Arequipa, Tacna, Juliaca, Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado; and internationally it receives constant flights from cities such as Bogotá, La Paz, Santiago de Chile, and since December 16, 2019, Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Chinchero International Airport

This is a work in progress to replace the current Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, which is located in the middle of the city. This new airport contemplates the construction of a new, larger international air terminal and with projections to handle international connections directly, without going through the Jorge Chávez International Airport, it will be located in the District of Chinchero, 28 km from Cuzco.

The work has already been awarded by Proinversión for its construction, with the winner being the Kuntur Wasi Consortium, made up of the Argentinean Corporación América and the Peruvian Andino Investment Holding. The winning group requested co-financing from the government for US$ 264.7 million for the project. This means a saving of US$ 204.1 million for the State, since it will finance 47% and not 78% of the project as planned.

The infrastructure will be designed to receive up to 5 million annual users with the possibility of expanding the terminal to 8 million. The total cost of the work is estimated at US$ 665 million.

Railway and highways

Cusco is connected by rail with the cities of Juliaca and Arequipa through the South Section of the Southern Railway whose terminus in the city is the Wánchaq station. Additionally, from the San Pedro station, the South East Section of the Southern Railroad departs from the city, (formerCusco-Santa Ana-Quillabamba Railroad) which is the road to the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. The route stands out for a series of grazing changes locally called "El Zig-Zag" from the outskirts of the city to the Poroy station. The train then descends from the highest point towards the Sacred Valley at the foot of the Andes. Before arriving at Machu Picchu, the train travels along the Urubamba River.

By road, it is connected to the cities of Puerto Maldonado, Arequipa, Abancay, Juliaca and Puno. The road that connects it with the city of Abancay is also the fastest to get to Lima after a trip of more than 20 hours crossing the departments of Apurímac, Ayacucho, Ica and Lima.

Health

Ambulance at the Plaza de Armas.

Because it is the administrative and economic capital of the Regional Government of Cusco, the city has a large number of public and private health centers. The Public Health Institutions that are present in the city are:

• Ministry of Health
  • Regional Hospital
  • Hospital Antonio Lorena
• It's health.
  • Hospital Adolfo Guevara Velazco
  • Metropolitan Polyclinic
  • San Sebastián
  • Polyclinic Santiago
  • Polyclinic La Recoleta

Education

Public and private schools

• Total: 5,000 to +
• Initial education: 2,000 to +
• Primary education: 2,000 to +
• Secondary education: 1,000 to +

The city of Cuzco has two of the oldest educational institutions in the country, such as the San Antonio Abad Seminary and the San Francisco de Borja College, located on a hill one block from the Plaza de Armas. San Francisco de Borja was the first school founded by the Spanish conquistadors in this city and it was destined for the education of the children of the caciques while San Bernardo was destined for the education of the children of Spaniards. Both institutions were administered during the colony by the Society of Jesus. Similarly, in the XVII century, the universities of San Ignacio de Loyola and San Antonio Abad were founded in Cusco.. The first closed after the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th century while the second continues to exist today. Likewise, in the first years of the republican life, the liberator Simón Bolívar founded the National College of Sciences that was for many a paradigmatic institution in Cusco and national education.

Currently the city has several educational institutions that cover primary and secondary levels, highlighting the private religious schools San Antonio Abad (part of the Seminary that was founded in 1598), the San Francisco de Asís Founded in the XVII century, Salesiano, La Merced, San José Obrero, Santa Ana and La Salle.

Universities

• Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco
• Andean University of Cusco
• Universidad Alas Peruanas (filial Cusco)
• Universidad Peruana Austral de Cusco
• Technological University of the Andes
• Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola
• Universidad César Vallejo
• National University of Fine Arts "Diego Quispe Tito"
• Private University TELESUP

Language institutions

• Quechua Language School
• Royal Academy of Spanish
• UNSAAC Language Centre
• UAC Language Centre
• Instituto Cultural Peruano Norte Americano de Cusco
• Centro Culturale Italiano
• French Alliance

Culture

Cinema

The Cusco Peru International Short Film Festival or FENACO is the most important international film competition in southern Peru, it has been held every November since 2004 in the city imperial city of Cuzco, historical capital of Peru.

Originally it was a national event dedicated to the short film format (up to 30 minutes long), with international samples, hence its name FENACO (National Short Film Festival), a name popularized in Peru and the world to recognize the festival. But given the reception and response of filmmakers, producers and distributors from different countries, it evolved to become an international festival, reaching in its sixth edition 354 short films in competition, from 37 countries.

Gastronomy

The Cusco gastronomy refers to the set of typical dishes of the city of Cusco located in the department of Cusco, in the southeastern Andes of Peru. This gastronomy presents a diversified amount of dishes resulting from the miscegenation and fusion of its pre-Inca, Inca, colonial and modern traditions. It is a variation of Peruvian Andean gastronomy although it maintains some typical cultural features of southern Peru.

Music

Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo

Performance in 1981 at the Qosqo Native Art Centre

Folkloric institution established in 1924. It is considered the most important folkloric institution in the city and was recognized by the Peruvian government as the first folkloric institution in the country and by the regional government as Living Cultural Heritage of the Cusco region.

Cuzco Symphony Orchestra

It is a stable artistic cast of INC-Cusco, created by Directorial Resolution No. 021/INC-Cusco of March 10, 2009. He performs more than 50 concerts a year, uses the Municipal Theater of Cuzco.

Sports

Squire of Science.

Football

Among other events, the Imperial city hosted the 2004 Copa América where a single game was played for third place between the Colombian and Uruguay teams.

The most practiced sport in the city is soccer, whose main teams are four.

El Cienciano that participates in the 1st League (First Division) and that in 2003 was Champion of the Copa Sudamericana and then, in 2004, won the title of Champion of the Recopa Sudamericana, being until now the only Peruvian team to win international tournaments.

Another historic team is Deportivo Garcilaso, which was promoted to Liga 1 after winning the Copa Perú 2022.

And finally there is the Cusco Fútbol Club, a club founded in 2009 under the name Real Garcilaso, and which played in the First Division from 2012 to 2021 after having won the Copa Perú in 2011. In 2022 it returned to promoted to League 1 after being crowned in the Second Division of Peru.

Football Clubs
Equipment	Foundation	Stadium	League
Science	1901	Garcilaso de la Vega	First Division
Deportivo Garcilaso	1957	Garcilaso de la Vega	First Division
Cusco FC	2009	Garcilaso de la Vega	First Division
University of Cusco	1903	University	Copa Perú

Sports infrastructure

El Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, principal enclosure of the city.

The city has the basic infrastructure for practicing sports, among which the following can be highlighted:

• Wanchaq
  • Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
  • Coliseum Closed "House of Youth"
  • Parque Zonal Wanchaq
  • Stadium El Hueco
  • Wanchaq Pool
  • Pool Season
  • Marianito Ferro Park
  • Coliseo Uriel García
• Near the Cuzco
  • International Club (tennis and shooting)
  • UNSAAC Stadium
  • Centro de Básquet Qoricancha
  • Umanchata Park
  • Garcilaso School Stadium
• San Sebastián
  • Parque Zonal San Sebastián
  • Cachimayo Park
• Santiago
  • Huancaro Stadium

Honorary degrees

The city has been awarded several honorary titles. These are:

• First city and first vote of all cities and villas of New Castile.

Awarded in Madrid by Real Cédula de Carlos V, April 24, 1540.

• The very unique, very noble, loyal and reliable city of Cuzco, the most main and head the kingdoms of Peru.

Awarded in Madrid by Real Cédula de Carlos V on July 19, 1540.

• Archaeological Capital of America.

Awarded at the XXV International Congress of Americanists held in La Plata, Argentina in 1933. This title was endorsed by the Congress of the Republic of Peru by Act No. 7688 of 23 January 1933.

• Cultural heritage of the world

Granted by the Seventh Convention of Mayors of the Great Cities of the World, held in Milan, Italy on 19 April 1978.

• Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Granted by the Unesco in Paris, France on December 9, 1983.

• Cultural Heritage of the Nation

Granted by Act No. 23765 of 30 December 1983. This same Law refers in its Article 3rd to the City of Cuzco as Tourism Capital of Peru.

• Historical capital of Peru

Granted by article 49 of the Constitution of Peru of 1993.

• Historical Capital of Latin America

Granted by the Latin American Congress of Regidores and Councillors, in the city of Cuzco, in November 2001.

• American Capital of Culture

Granted by the American Capital Organization of Culture in 2007.

Sister cities

Since the 1980s, the Provincial Municipality of Cuzco has entered into "brotherhood" with 22 cities with which it is linked by historical, cultural and traditional ties.

The sister cities are:

City	Country	Date
La Paz	Bolivia	01984-03-01 1 March 1984
Baguio	Philippines	01984-03-08 8 March 1984
Samarknda	Uzbekistan	01986-08-04 4 August 1986
Mexico City	Mexico	01997-06-17 17 June 1997
Kyoto	Japan	01987-09-19 19 September 1987
Krakow	Poland	01988-11-08 8 November 1988
New Jersey	United States	01988-11-08 8 November 1988
Chartres	France	01989-10-21 21 October 1989
Montería	Colombia	01989-12-04 4 December 1989
Kaesong	North Korea	01990-10-22 22 October 1990
Athens	Greece	01991-09-19 19 September 1991
Barbara	United States	01992-08-29 29 August 1992
Moscow	Russia	01993-06-23 23 June 1993
Havana	Cuba	01993-11-22 22 November 1993
Bethlehem	Palestine	01993-10-22 22 October 1993
Jerusalem	Israel	01996-03-23 23 March 1996
Copán	Honduras	01996-04-11 11 April 1996
Xi'an	China	01998-06-21 21 June 1998
Potosí	Bolivia	01998-06-22 22 June 1998
Cuenca	Ecuador	02000-03-14 14 March 2000
Montevideo	Uruguay	02001-07-19 19 July 2001
Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	02003-10-10 10 October 2003
Guelph	Canada	02018-12-02 December 2, 2018
Quetzaltenango	Guatemala	02018-12-14 14 December 2018

Predecessor: Córdoba

American Capital of Culture 2007

Successor: Brasilia