The monastery was founded in 1579, after Peru had been colonized, when a rich Spanish widow decided to donate her fortune to the monastery and become the founder of the order, named for St. Catherine of Siena. Throughout the years, the monastery attracted mainly the second daughters of upper class families, some of whom became nuns and others who joined the convent as lay women to live removed from the wider society. Both types of women had a number of lay servants According to the legends, in the early years that nuns had servants and threw parties and generally lived very well in the convent.
In the late 1800s, a stricter sister arrived and cracked down on a lot of the frivolity, and it became a more typical convent of dominican sisters. Over the years, it had grown significantly and now occupies an entire city block in Arequipa.
In the 1960s, the monastery was badly damaged by several earthquakes that hit Arequipa. At the same time, the city told the monastery that it was mandatory that they install electricity and running water. Since they did not have the money to make the necessary repairs, and since the number of nuns who lived there had shrunken significantly, they chose to turn most of the monastery into a museum, which is what we visited, and maintain a small separate convent on the same grounds that is still closed to visitors. We enjoyed our visit, and here are a few of the many photos:
The nuns were cloistered, so they could only receive family visitors on Sundays, and were separated by the type of wall shown above. The rooms also had little lazy susans, like the ones JP is checking out, through which they could pass food or other things the family had brought to the sisters.
Some of the "cells" were very well appointed, probably belonging to a wealthier woman.
The whole area is very well maintained, with lots of flowers and trees, and is very peaceful.
Pictured above is the laundry area where the nuns could wash their clothes in the basins that connect to the main pipeline, and JP resting near the laundry area.
The monastery is connected to the church shown above, but the nuns had a separate area where they sat, separated from the general public, since they were cloistered.
There were also great views of the city from the lookout point. The first shot shows the rooftops of Arequipa through the bell near the roof of the church, and the second shows what my resident mountain expert (JP) tells me is Mt. Chachani.
We had fun wandering around the monastery and checking out how the nuns lived, although JP could only take so many little cells and nice blue walls...
Next up: Our Colca Hike!
No comments:
Post a Comment