When you are in the city of Arequipa, you definitely have to visit all those places that teach you more about this beautiful city, for example you can start with the San Francisco Church which is characterized by having a vault made of brick and its walls are made of ashlar.
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According to the history the temple of San Francisco was designed in the year 1569, and was in charge of Gaspar Baez, as we are told the first church was built and completed in the early seventeenth century, but as you know Arequipa is a seismic zone and because of the earthquake of 1608 was damaged parts of the structure.
Because of this first earthquake that came with great force made the temple was reduced, because the reconstruction was carried out if however the temple suffers another damage because of the earthquake occurred in 1687, from there it had to make a reconstruction almost in its entirety, which took advantage in making a second construction.
During this construction some architectural attributes were added that are part of it and can still be appreciated today. When you are there you will notice that the building of the temple is made almost entirely of ashlar and brick.
On the outside of the towers of the temple you can see three very representative images of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic of Guzman who were finely sculpted in low relief.
When you enter the interior of the temple you will notice that there is a silver altar accompanied by different characters representing people of the catholic cult. Now let's talk about all the internal divisions that the temple has such as the Convent that is presented as a prominent area or known by few as the area destined to the library.
Regarding the library this one keeps at least twenty thousand books in which there is an invaluable variety. Nowadays, inside the old convent you can see that a museum has been installed under the name of Museo de Arte Sacro.
Inside the museum there are different rooms, the first is the Archaeological and anthropological room where you can see a variety of pieces of Inca origin, the second room is about Natural History in which are zoomorphic pieces of the jungle, in the Museum of Religious Art and the library of the temple are valuable collections such as canvases, ornaments and religious sculptures, which once adorned the walls of the church.
After the construction of the temple, it opened its doors to the public in 1978. At present, this temple is part of the Franciscan order complex, the convent, the San Francisco square and other important places.
If you want to visit the temple you can do it from Monday to Saturday from 07:00 to 09:00 hours and from 17:00 to 20:00 hours.
The temple has a lot to show, since it functions as a museum inside it, what we can see here are the following:
San Francisco church façade
In the tower of the temple you can see the images of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic of Guzman in low relief and finely carved.
High altar of the temple
The silver altar is accompanied by figures of characters that belonged to the catholic cult, from there we can know who forged the catholic faith.
Visit the church library
This library preserves some twenty of my original books, which are in special rooms.
Museum of Sacred Art
This space is divided into three rooms, in which it exhibits the following: the first is the Archaeological and Anthropological Room, here you can see pieces of Inca origin.
The second room is about Natural History in which zoomorphic pieces typical of the jungle are exhibited and the last room is more of Religious Art, here you will find canvases, ornaments and religious sculptures that were originally used to decorate the walls of the church.
If you want to know these beautiful figures and more secrets of the San Francisco church then you should go to 202 Zela Street a few steps from the Plaza San Francisco in the city of Arequipa.
