Today was a big day, filled with museum visits of all kinds. First was the Italian art museum - but here I cheated: my travel guide said that the murals on the outside wall were the most spectacular part, so I only stopped by to look at them without actually entering the museum.
Next I visited the cathedral, a huge church with about fifteen smaller altars on the sides and of course a big one in the center. This is the view from the main altar's platform:
Integrated into the cathedral is a museum of religious art that displays the archbishop's study, nativity scenes, religious paintings of all kinds - and this beautifully carved choir:
Just two blocks from the cathedral is another big church, the San Francisco convent. It is famous for its catacombs that used to serve as a public cemetery. The catacombs are interesting, but I think the archeologists doing the excavations (or the guys responsible for how the catacombs are exhibited today) went a little over the top: the bones have been sorted by type (femurs in one grave, skulls in the next, then hips, etc), and in one grave they arranged femur bones and skulls in a circular pattern. I'm pretty sure that's not how they were found!
But for me, the highlight in the visit to the San Francisco convent was something else: its library! The library isn't very big, but the room is absolutely beautiful. Lined with bookshelves on all sides, a narrow passageway allows access to the books higher up, almost making up a second floor. Reading tables in the middle of the room, and everything lit up by sunlight filtering through a bunch of skylights in the ceiling. What a wonderful place! I was almost sad that photography wasn't allowed - probably to protect the old books from all the tourists who don't know how to turn off their camera's flash. As is often the case, however, the internet provides: there is a nice picture here.
Next, I visited the newly remodeled metropolitan museum. The museum explains Lima's history from the first settlements to Spanish conquest to modern developments. I would hardly call it a "museum" because there are no display cases and no lengthy written explanations to be found. Instead, the two hour guided visit consists of a series of multimedia events: videos, 3D videos, rumbling chairs to demonstrate the effects of an earthquake, stuff projected on ceilings, reconstructions of streets and forts, and so on. A refreshing change from the usual museum style, although I wouldn't want all museums to be like this. I like that traditional museums give me the freedom to look at one exhibit for ten minutes and skip others if it pleases me.
When I left the metropolitan museum, it was already dark, and therefore time to visit the magic water circuit. The circuit consists of some twelve fountains, set in a nice park. At night, the fountains are all lit up, like this rainbow fountain:
At one of the fountains, there is an audiovisual show a few times each night. They have a couple of lasers, and a system to project video onto the fountain. This way, they show off some of Peru's traditional dances and music. I really enjoyed the show, although my travel guide warned that it would be cheesy. The show being a bit hard to capture in a picture, here is another more static fountain that only changed its color from time to time:
Some of the fountains are interactive - a few have buttons to press to change colors, and others are designed so that visitors can step inside, like this arc that you can walk through:
Next I visited the cathedral, a huge church with about fifteen smaller altars on the sides and of course a big one in the center. This is the view from the main altar's platform:
Integrated into the cathedral is a museum of religious art that displays the archbishop's study, nativity scenes, religious paintings of all kinds - and this beautifully carved choir:
Just two blocks from the cathedral is another big church, the San Francisco convent. It is famous for its catacombs that used to serve as a public cemetery. The catacombs are interesting, but I think the archeologists doing the excavations (or the guys responsible for how the catacombs are exhibited today) went a little over the top: the bones have been sorted by type (femurs in one grave, skulls in the next, then hips, etc), and in one grave they arranged femur bones and skulls in a circular pattern. I'm pretty sure that's not how they were found!
But for me, the highlight in the visit to the San Francisco convent was something else: its library! The library isn't very big, but the room is absolutely beautiful. Lined with bookshelves on all sides, a narrow passageway allows access to the books higher up, almost making up a second floor. Reading tables in the middle of the room, and everything lit up by sunlight filtering through a bunch of skylights in the ceiling. What a wonderful place! I was almost sad that photography wasn't allowed - probably to protect the old books from all the tourists who don't know how to turn off their camera's flash. As is often the case, however, the internet provides: there is a nice picture here.
Next, I visited the newly remodeled metropolitan museum. The museum explains Lima's history from the first settlements to Spanish conquest to modern developments. I would hardly call it a "museum" because there are no display cases and no lengthy written explanations to be found. Instead, the two hour guided visit consists of a series of multimedia events: videos, 3D videos, rumbling chairs to demonstrate the effects of an earthquake, stuff projected on ceilings, reconstructions of streets and forts, and so on. A refreshing change from the usual museum style, although I wouldn't want all museums to be like this. I like that traditional museums give me the freedom to look at one exhibit for ten minutes and skip others if it pleases me.
When I left the metropolitan museum, it was already dark, and therefore time to visit the magic water circuit. The circuit consists of some twelve fountains, set in a nice park. At night, the fountains are all lit up, like this rainbow fountain:
At one of the fountains, there is an audiovisual show a few times each night. They have a couple of lasers, and a system to project video onto the fountain. This way, they show off some of Peru's traditional dances and music. I really enjoyed the show, although my travel guide warned that it would be cheesy. The show being a bit hard to capture in a picture, here is another more static fountain that only changed its color from time to time:
Some of the fountains are interactive - a few have buttons to press to change colors, and others are designed so that visitors can step inside, like this arc that you can walk through:
