Lima, nowadays a bustling, little bit chaotic and quite noisy city, has a rich historical and architectural heritage. When Francisco Pizarro founded Lima in 1535 on an existing indigenous settlement he had clear orders by the Spanish crown on how to create and organize the city. The design and layout of Limas historical Center was based on the model of cities in Spain, especially Seville. The same applies for the first Colonial houses in Lima. Initially the first mansions were all built block (Spanish = Cuadra) by block around Plaza Mayor in a chessboard style and with specific rules as determined by Francisco Pizarro (exact length of one block = 400 feet/122 m and a precise width of the streets = 40 foot/12.2 m). During the Colonial times the Spanish immigrants developed their own unique architectural style. The origins of this style were very similar to the typical Arabic-Moorish architecture in Spain. The settlers had to adapt to the local environment like earthquakes or the inferiority of building materials and so soon a very characteristic architectural style developed.

Good examples of unique architectural factors are the famous balconies of Lima; most of them closed balconies with jalousies, of Moorish origin but with an absolutely distinctive Lima style and character. Lima known as the ‘City of Kings’ and ‘City of Gardens’ was soon famous for these extraordinary balconies and known as well as ‘City of Balconies’. Lima had so many balconies that nobody ever thought they would be some day something special. The main reason for building closed balconies was that the first immigrants thought it would be inappropriate for their women to be seen from a window, an open balcony or when going outside. Therefore closed balconies like in North-Africa were built, allowing the high society ladies of Lima to see what was going on outside but without being seen.

Today the core of Colonial Lima still exists, but relatively few of Limas original Colonial mansions are still standing. Reasons for that are severe earthquakes (in particular the ones from 1746 and 1940), urban development at the beginning of the 19th century and of course modernisation. A lot of buildings in Limas City Center date back to the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when the wealthy and powerful Republican elite tried to construct a modern city based on the model of Paris (at that time assumed to be the cultural capital in the world).

However you will still find today a few amazing and impressive mansions from Colonial times and the beginning of the Republic that are worth a visit. Go for it! Don’t let yourself be scared off by good meant warnings that Limas City Center is very unsafe and dangerous. It’s true that you should take precautions like in every capital city, don’t show off (like carrying your 2000 US$ Digital camera on the belly), carry lots of cash, wear your Rolex (by the way you can buy pretty good replicas here…) and try to blend in, than you should be fine. Since the 1990s the Municipality of Lima ‘cleaned’ the City Center in an effort to remove lots of persistent street vendors (unfortunately there a still quite a few left) and dodgy figures. Programs initiated by the government encouraged the citizens to be proud of their city, renovate buildings and ‘shape up’ streets and parks in an attempt to recuperate the city’s cultural heritage and of course to promote tourism.