Peru's most overlooked colonial city — where Ayacucho sits at 2,750 metres in the central Andes and contains 33 colonial churches (more per capita than any other city in Peru, one for each year of Christ's life according to local tradition) including the Catedral Basílica de Santa María de Huamanga (1612, one of the oldest cathedrals in the Americas), the Semana Santa celebrations (Holy Week before Easter) are the most elaborate in the Americas and have been observed continuously since 1612, the pre-Inca Wari Empire's capital (Huari — 70,000 people at its peak, 700–1000 CE) sits 22 km north of the city and was the most powerful polity in South America for 300 years before the Inca, and Ayacucho artisans produce the finest retablos (three-dimensional narrative altarpieces in painted plaster and mixed media) in the Americas — a craft tradition that originated in colonial-era portable altars for evangelising isolated Andean communities
Ayacucho (180,000 city; San Francisco de Huamanga province 300,000) is the capital of Ayacucho Region in south-central Peru at 2,750 metres elevation — a highland colonial city established by Francisco Pizarro in 1540 as the administrative centre for the Huamanga region. The city was the site of the Battle of Ayacucho (1824), the decisive last battle of South American independence. Its remoteness — 8 hours by road from Lima, poor air connections — has preserved both its colonial character and kept it far less visited than Cusco or Lima.
The region around Ayacucho was the heartland of the Wari Empire (600–1000 CE), the first great pan-Andean civilisation — a polity that controlled territory from what is now Ecuador to northern Argentina, built roads, administered a redistributive economy, and established the administrative template that the later Inca Empire would inherit and expand. The Spanish founded Huamanga (now Ayacucho) in 1539–1540 and built the remarkable colonial architectural ensemble that includes 33 historic churches. The Battle of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824 — the last major battle of the South American wars of…