Chinchero

The ancient town of Chinchero is one of the most beautiful in the sacred Valley Of the Incas. A wonderful place where you can still feel and see the Inca culture as it was in times past. It has an incomparable plaza based on what was an Inca palace, with a typical Sunday fair where ancient marketing practices are still carried out and where you can observe people with the typical clothing of their ancestors.

A place lost in time

Chinchero is located 28 km from the city of Cusco, in the province of Urubamba, at 3 780 masl Flanked by large snow-capped mountains such as Salkantay, Verónica and Soray, and from the Huaypo and Piuray lagoons. Chinchero is the most typical and picturesque town in Sacred Valley of the Incas, congregates twelve indigenous Andean communities that are still governed by the Inca organization system called "Ayllu". Its population is dedicated to the cultivation of native species and livestock, although today tourism moves a large part of the local economy. A town that struggles to keep its ancient tradition alive.

An Inca palace and a beautiful colonial church

In Chinchero its spectacular main square stands out, a remarkable fusion between Inca architecture and colonial architecture, which make Chinchero a unique place. It is possible to admire the remains of what was the palace of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, a great Inca wall with 10 trapezoidal niches that is preserved to this day, shows how beautiful the palace must have been; In addition, in the plaza and its surroundings there are Inca buildings and terraces that show the original Inca urban layout. The chronicles tell that in 1540 Manco Inca sent Chinchero on fire while fleeing from the Spanish conquerors, so that they would run out of provisions.

Built on the Inca settlement, the colonial temple of Chichero was built around 1572 by the Viceroy Toledo and completed in 1607, calling it the Church of Our Lady of Monserrat. This church is one of the best examples of Cusco religious art, it was built on Inca walls, with an altar decorated in gold leaf in the Baroque style and on whose walls you can see original works by indigenous artists Diego Quispe Tito (the highest representative from the Cusco school) and Francisco Chihuantito.

Towards the sides of the church there are three large portals built in stone and mud, one next to the church bell tower and the other two as entrance doors to the square, which give the place a unique style and that stand out in all the Chinchero postcards.

Culture and tradition

Chinchero is characterized by the living culture that it still maintains despite the strong incursion of the modern world on traditions. On Sundays, a fair is held in the main square of Chinchero, where you will see products from the town, handicrafts and above all its textiles, which are made in the ancestral style, and where it is still possible to observe barter. If you wish, you can see in the textile centers how the women dressed in their beautiful costumes perform the process of spinning and dyeing the wool with natural dyes, and appreciate the way they weave following the ancient tradition.

At the fair you can also observe the "Varayoc" who are the leaders of the communities that are part of Chinchero, who dressed in their typical and multicolored costumes continue jealously to maintain the tradition of their ancestors.