Quirikancha and the San Domingo Convent. This convent was rudely built on top of one of the most important temples of the Incan empire called Quirikancha which means “courtyard of gold”. The temple was reported to have life-sized gold statues, solid gold alters and gold wall panels. Much of this was offered to the Spaniards as ransom for the captured Incan ruler Atahualpa. The ransom was accepted but the Spaniards killed him anyway then raided the rest of the gold from the temple and slammed a catholic monolith smack bang on top of it.
Inside the convent and adjacent Museum one will find a strange mixture of Incan ruins, mummies, artefacts and catholic paintings, sculptures and architecture. You may also notice Catholic priests and nuns wandering around admiring the giant religious paintings and ignoring the Incan artefacts.
We also ticked off the Museo Historico Regional and Monumento Pachacuteq in Cusco city that are a part of our Turistico Ticket, made a stop at the Cusco Chocolate factory and booked in our 2 night trip to Machu Picchu! Also Viv was showered in gifts from random locals on the account of it being her birthday.
In this photo taken in the main courtyard you can just see some of the Incan ruins through the alcoves on the bottom left, and on the bottom right you can see a huge catholic painting being admired by some Nuns.
