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Ayacucho

Travelers are only just rediscovering Ayacucho's treasures. Richly decorated churches dominate the vivid cityscape alongside peach- and pastel-colored colonial buildings hung with wooden balconies. Among numerous festivities, Ayacucho boasts Peru’s premier Semana Santa celebrations, while in the surrounding mountains lie some of the country’s most significant archaeological attractions.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Cathedral
Ayacucho
This spectacular 17th-century cathedral on the Plaza de Armas has a religious-art museum inside. The moody facade doesn’t quite prepare you for the…
Museo de la Memoria
Ayacucho
Ayacucho’s most haunting museum, remembers the impact the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) had on Peru in the city that was most deeply affected by the…
Museo de Arte Popular
Ayacucho
Displays popular art covering the ayacucheño (natives of Ayacucho) spectrum – silverwork, rug- and tapestry-weaving, stone and woodcarvings, ceramics …
Vilcashuamán
Ayacucho
This former Inca stronghold was once considered the geographical center of the Inca empire. It was believed to have been a city constructed in the shape…
Wari Ruins
Ayacucho
Sprawling for several kilometers along a cactus-forested roadside are the extensive ruins of Wari, the capital of the eponymous empire, which predated the…
Museo Arqueológico Hipólito Unanue
Ayacucho
Wari ceramics make up most of the small exhibition here, along with relics from the region’s other various civilizations. The museum buildings are set in…
Casa Museo Joaquín López Antay
Ayacucho
This captivating little museum is really part art gallery and part an explanation of the process of retablo making. Retablos, ornamental, originally…
Prefectura
Ayacucho
Most of Ayacucho's old mansions are now mainly political offices and can be visited, usually during business hours. These offices of the department of…

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