Where is Lima Cathedral?
Lima Cathedral is in Lima, Peru, in South America. The game uses the reference point shown below: -12.0461°, -77.0307°. A guess within 25 km earns the full distance score before any hint deduction.
The answer marker represents Lima Cathedral on the eastern side of Plaza Mayor in Lima's historic centre.
Map loading. Coordinates: -12.0461°, -77.0307°.
The story behind the landmark
The cathedral's institutional history traces the first church to Lima's Spanish foundation in 1535 and its elevation to cathedral status in 1541. Successive earthquakes and rebuilding changed the structure over time. Its appearance therefore reflects several construction phases, rather than a building surviving untouched from its earliest foundation.
Peru's tourism inventory describes a mixture of architectural styles and the reconstruction that followed earthquake damage, including work after the 1940 earthquake. The cathedral museum also presents its collections of religious art. Together, the building and its contents help explain Lima's changing religious, artistic and civic history.
How to recognise it
- A broad light-coloured façade with two flanking bell towers
- A richly framed central portal beneath the main upper gable
- A cathedral frontage opening directly onto a major city square
Look twice: a useful comparison
Twin-towered cathedrals appear throughout Latin America. A pale façade alone does not identify Lima. Compare the central portal, the spacing of the towers and the Plaza Mayor setting. Also keep Lima's coastal location separate from Cusco, whose cathedral stands high in the Andes.
A detail worth remembering
The cathedral's foundation date does not describe the age of every wall or architectural detail. Earthquakes and successive rebuilding make it a useful example of how an old institution can occupy a building composed of several historical layers.
