Museo Convento de San Francisco
Photo: 20170807_Bolivia_1358 Potosí sRGB — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Museo Convento de San Francisco in Lima showcases colonial religious art and houses catacombs with remains of ancient inhabitants.
Planning your visit
The San Francisco convent in Lima is a baroque complex of 1774 that survived the earthquakes which destroyed much of colonial Lima, and it holds two things worth the visit.
The library is one of the finest colonial libraries in the Americas: a long vaulted room with wooden galleries holding around 25,000 volumes, including texts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, some of the earliest printed books to reach South America.
The catacombs beneath are the other. Lima's dead were buried in the church crypts until 1808, and excavation found the bones of an estimated 25,000 people, now arranged in ossuary pits — femurs and skulls stacked in geometric patterns, which is macabre and much photographed.
The cloisters carry Sevillian azulejo tiles and a series of paintings of the life of Saint Francis.
It sits in the historic centre. Allow ninety minutes. Bookable options combine it with the Larco Museum. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is Museo Convento de San Francisco?
Museo Convento de San Francisco is in Lima, Peru. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for Museo Convento de San Francisco?
Allow ninety minutes. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Museo Convento de San Francisco in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
