2025-05-20 | Cultural Heritage
City of Cusco Cultural Heritage
Inscription: 7th Session of the World Heritage Committee. Florence, December 9, 1983.
The City of Cusco was the most important urban center of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire, founded by Inca Manco Cápac. It consisted of palaces, temples, and canchas (residential units), with streets and plazas, surrounded by extensive agricultural and craft areas. It reached its greatest development under Inca Pachacútec in the 15th century.
When the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire in 1534, they built the Spanish city over the Inca enclosures and constructions.
The City of Cusco has been recognized as Cultural Heritage for its exceptional universal value, representing a masterpiece of human creative genius (Criterion (i)). It constitutes a unique testimony of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire, which exercised political, religious, and administrative control over various South American countries between the 15th and 16th centuries.
The city represents 3,000 years of indigenous and autonomous cultural development in the southern Andes of Peru (Criterion (iii)). Additionally, the City of Cusco offers a unique testimony of urban and architectural achievements of political, economic, and cultural settlements during the pre-Columbian era in this region.
It is a representative example of the confluence of two distinct cultures: Inca and Spanish, which produced a remarkable cultural syncretism and shaped a unique urban structure and architectural form (Criterion (iv)).
Integrity. The City of Cusco maintains the spatial organization and most of the buildings from the ancient capital of the Inca Empire and the Viceroyalty. Despite urban growth, the sectors comprising the imperial Inca city remain recognizable with their ancient stone structures and construction techniques, defining and enclosing streets and canchas (housing units), over which colonial and republican houses, monasteries, and churches were built, maintaining intact their architectural elements and works of art.
Authenticity. The authenticity of the City of Cusco is supported by the physical evidence of its urban composition in streets and plazas, its original distribution with urban and architectural values, and the use of Inca and Colonial architecture and space. These features reveal Cusco's importance as a center of political power and its symbiosis with the colonial settlement and 15th-century patterns, allowing a better understanding of the city and its historical process.
Protection and Management Requirements. The City of Cusco is classified as Cultural Heritage of the Nation according to Supreme Resolution No. 2900 of 1972. Under this regulation, all streets within the delimited area are classified as Monumental Urban Environment, and 103 historic buildings are classified as Monuments.
Cusco is protected heritage under the National Constitution and Law No. 28296, General Law of National Cultural Heritage, among others.
The Ministry of Culture and the Provincial Municipality of Cusco are the main authorities responsible for the conservation and management of the property, conducting constant urban evaluations, registration, protection, supervision, and control of works. The Municipality of Cusco is responsible for authorizing intervention works in the city and participating in the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage programs and projects.
The City of Cusco was the most important urban center of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire, founded by Inca Manco Cápac. It consisted of palaces, temples, and canchas (residential units), with streets and plazas, surrounded by extensive agricultural and craft areas. It reached its greatest development under Inca Pachacútec in the 15th century.
When the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire in 1534, they built the Spanish city over the Inca enclosures and constructions.
The City of Cusco has been recognized as Cultural Heritage for its exceptional universal value, representing a masterpiece of human creative genius (Criterion (i)). It constitutes a unique testimony of the Tahuantinsuyo Empire, which exercised political, religious, and administrative control over various South American countries between the 15th and 16th centuries.
The city represents 3,000 years of indigenous and autonomous cultural development in the southern Andes of Peru (Criterion (iii)). Additionally, the City of Cusco offers a unique testimony of urban and architectural achievements of political, economic, and cultural settlements during the pre-Columbian era in this region.
It is a representative example of the confluence of two distinct cultures: Inca and Spanish, which produced a remarkable cultural syncretism and shaped a unique urban structure and architectural form (Criterion (iv)).
Integrity. The City of Cusco maintains the spatial organization and most of the buildings from the ancient capital of the Inca Empire and the Viceroyalty. Despite urban growth, the sectors comprising the imperial Inca city remain recognizable with their ancient stone structures and construction techniques, defining and enclosing streets and canchas (housing units), over which colonial and republican houses, monasteries, and churches were built, maintaining intact their architectural elements and works of art.
Authenticity. The authenticity of the City of Cusco is supported by the physical evidence of its urban composition in streets and plazas, its original distribution with urban and architectural values, and the use of Inca and Colonial architecture and space. These features reveal Cusco's importance as a center of political power and its symbiosis with the colonial settlement and 15th-century patterns, allowing a better understanding of the city and its historical process.
Protection and Management Requirements. The City of Cusco is classified as Cultural Heritage of the Nation according to Supreme Resolution No. 2900 of 1972. Under this regulation, all streets within the delimited area are classified as Monumental Urban Environment, and 103 historic buildings are classified as Monuments.
Cusco is protected heritage under the National Constitution and Law No. 28296, General Law of National Cultural Heritage, among others.
The Ministry of Culture and the Provincial Municipality of Cusco are the main authorities responsible for the conservation and management of the property, conducting constant urban evaluations, registration, protection, supervision, and control of works. The Municipality of Cusco is responsible for authorizing intervention works in the city and participating in the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage programs and projects.