Peru & Bolivia
Photo Gallery 23:
Monasterio de Santa Catalina,
Arequipa, Peru
Photos by Adam Jones
The Santa Catalina monastery is Arequipa's showcase attraction. Built in the late
16th century and expanded in the 17th, it was home to generations of daughters from
Arequipa's elite, who paid a dowry to be cloistered within its walls. After 391 years
of isolation, Santa Catalina was opened to the world in 1970, when the nuns chose to fund
modernization by accepting visitors. Today the few remaining nuns live, still cloistered,
in a small part of the complex; the monastery as a whole covers an entire block and
feels more like a town (complete with street names) than a religious facility.
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