Description of the attraction
The Monastery of Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine) is a Dominican convent located in Arequipa. It was built in 1579 and expanded in the 17th century. More than 20,000 square meters of the monastery's territory is built up with buildings predominantly in the Mudejar style with brightly painted walls. Currently, about 20 nuns live in the northern part of the complex. The rest of the monastery is open to the public.
The founder of the monastery was the rich widow Maria de Guzman. According to the existing traditions of that time, the second son or daughter in the family was obliged to devote his life to serving the Church, and only women belonging to the high society of Spanish families were admitted to the monastery. Each family had to pay a dowry when their daughter entered the monastery. For example, the amount of such a dowry was 2,400 silver coins, which is equivalent to about $ 150,000 today. The nuns were also required to provide themselves and the monastery with 25 items, this list included: statues, paintings, lamps, clothes. Wealthy novices donated English porcelain dishes, silk curtains, and carpets to the monastery. But the poor also had the opportunity to enter a monastery. Although you can see from the cells of the monastery that most of the nuns came from wealthy families.
The monastery was designed for 450 people, about a third of them were nuns, the rest were clerks.
In 1960, the monastery of Santa Catalina was badly damaged twice during an earthquake. Local nuns had to build new housing in the neighborhood. Over time, the monastery was completely restored in stages with the help of Promociones Turisticas del Sur SA and the World Monuments Fund. It also helped pay for the electrification and water supply of the monastery. Then it was decided to open the monastery to the public.
