Free Walking Tour Trujillo: Plazas, Mansions, Cathedral

Your Trujillo Walking Tour: The Nine Stops in Order

1. 1

   Plaza de Armas de Trujillo

   

   Start where Trujillo itself started. At the end of 1534, on orders from Diego de Almagro, Martín de Estete began laying out the town's streets, and he fixed the shape and the size of this square. Four streets frame it today: Pizarro, Independencia, Orbegoso and Almagro. Turn slowly and you'll see what the square was built to hold: the Municipal Palace, the cathedral where this walk ends, and mansions from both the Spanish colonial and the republican eras.

   This is also where Trujillo broke with Spain. On 29 December 1820 the Marquis of Torre Tagle proclaimed the city's independence here, and through the republican years the square remained the stage on which the city's history played out. Keep that date in mind; you'll meet it again in bronze within a minute.

   The square has changed its furniture over time. In 1841 Pedro de Mandalengoitia Sanz de Zárate gave it a fountain of white stone, made on his own estate and mill in Santa Cruz de Carabamba. A marble fountain that once stood here was later moved to Plazuela El Recreo, which you'll reach further along the walk.

   The square is free and open to everyone. Walk 30 meters, about a minute, into its center to the monument that has stood there since 1929.

   Hours

   Open 24/7 (public square)

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Plaza de Armas de Trujillo on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Monumento a la Libertad

   

   The Monumento a la Libertad began as a centenary project. In 1920, with the hundredth anniversary of Trujillo's independence approaching, the city launched an international competition, and out of 104 entries the design by Edmund Moeller, a sculptor from Dresden, won. The work was made in Germany and assembled here by Henry Albrecht; construction began in 1925, and after more than four years the monument was unveiled on 4 July 1929. It counts as Moeller's most important work, and Peru awarded him its highest honor, the Order of the Sun, for it.

   Read it from the bottom up. On a granite base, 30 meters high and 25 meters wide, a circular platform carries figures standing for art, science, agriculture, trade and health. Above them, three powerful figures tell a story in sequence: a man crouched and bent, for slavery; a figure surging forward with hands bound behind the back, for the struggle for freedom; and an upright man with one arm outstretched and a clenched fist, for liberation. At the very top, a figure stands on a globe and holds the torch of freedom in its right hand.

   Then walk around it and find the bronze reliefs set into the body of the monument. The first shows Torre Tagle proclaiming independence on 29 December 1820, the event that took place on this very square. The second remembers the Battle of Junín on 6 August 1824, the third the decisive Battle of Ayacucho on 9 December 1824. One slow circle around the pedestal gives you the whole arc of independence.

   There's nothing to pay here. Casa Urquiaga is 50 meters away, about a minute's walk.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Monumento a la Libertad on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Casa Urquiaga

   

   Casa Urquiaga, also known as Casa Calonge, shows how a Trujillo mansion could reinvent itself. It was built in the 16th century and rebuilt in the 19th, and it now wears a neoclassical face. Before you go in, look at the wooden doorway, the Doric columns and the wrought-iron window grilles.

   Today the house is a seat of Peru's Central Reserve Bank and a museum, and that gives you the chance to see a historic mansion from the inside. Three patios lined with columns open up behind the street front, and the rooms hold objects from pre-Inca, colonial and republican times: Chimú ornaments, mahogany furniture and ceramics donated by Simón Bolívar.

   Entry is free, so it's worth going in even when you're short on time: the patios show you the layout hidden behind the street façades you'll pass for the rest of the walk, and the Chimú pieces are a first glimpse of the people who ruled this coast before the Spanish. Check that the house is open on your day.

   From here it's 390 meters, about 6 minutes, to Palacio Iturregui; on the way you pass the Iglesia de la Merced.

   Hours

   Mon–Sat 09:15–17:00, Sun closed

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Casa Urquiaga on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Palacio Iturregui

   

   Palacio Iturregui is currently closed, so this is a stop for the façade, and the façade is the point. Built in 1842 in neoclassical style, the two-storey house shows large windows crowned with wrought iron shaped like a peineta, the tall ornamental comb of traditional Spanish dress, set between columns attached to the wall.

   The name comes from its owner, Juan Manuel Iturregui Aguilarte, one of the heroes of independence, and after him his son Juan Manuel Iturregui González. Inside, the floors are laid with Spanish flagstone and Italian marble, and 19th-century furnishings remain. Today the building is the seat of the Club Central de Trujillo.

   Pause long enough to compare it with Casa Urquiaga: both are neoclassical, but this one was built new in the republican era by a man of the independence generation, while the other is a 16th-century house reworked later. Then walk 230 meters, about 3 minutes, to the Teatro Municipal de Trujillo.

   Status

   Currently closed

   Website

   clubcentraltrujillo.com ↗

   Location

   Palacio Iturregui on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Teatro Municipal de Trujillo

   

   The Teatro Municipal de Trujillo looks like a calm civic building. Its story is anything but calm. In 1867 this spot housed the “Gabinete Óptico” of Agustín González Pinillo; the municipality acquired the building in 1874 through Enrique O'Donovan, and the theater opened in 1875 with visiting companies such as the Duclós, beneath friezes by the Spanish painter Oñate.

   On the night of 21 February 1910, during the last screening of a film show by the firm Barclay & Co., the overheated film exploded in the second box. According to the newspaper La Industria, flames up to 6 meters long swept over the boxes and galleries to the left of the entrance. The fire blocked the only exit from the top gallery, the cazuela, and people threw themselves down past the boxes. 54 people died, and the theater was destroyed. The disaster shook the whole city; investigations targeted the film company's representative Reuter, the mayor and the inspector of public shows, but the charges were all dismissed.

   Rebuilding took 13 years, and the theater reopened in 1923. Today it seats 408 and also houses a piano room and a ballet room. There are no regular visiting hours: the way in is a ticket for a show, and the box office works to the event schedule. If something is on during your stay, that's the way to see the hall; otherwise this is a stop for the story.

   Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen is only 110 meters further, about a minute's walk.

   Hours

   Box office open per event schedule; no fixed daily public hours

   Price

   Event tickets vary by show

   Website

   cultura.gob.pe ↗

   Location

   Teatro Municipal de Trujillo on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen

   

   Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen is a church and monastery complex, and it's the stop where timing matters most on this route. Getting in is free, with a voluntary donation suggested, but the doors open only in short windows that change from weekday to weekday. If you want to see inside, check today's hours before you set off and plan your start around them.

   This is a working religious site rather than a museum piece. Behind the church sits an art museum linked to the monastery, which keeps its own limited schedule.

   The rule is simple: if the door is open, go in. If it's shut, don't wait on the doorstep. Plazuela El Recreo is 270 meters away, about 4 minutes, and it keeps something the main square lost.

   Hours

   Mon: 9:00–11:15 | Tue: 16:00–17:00 | Wed: 9:00–11:15, 16:00–17:00 | Thu: 16:00–17:00 | Fri: 9:00–11:15 | Sat: 9:00–11:15, 16:00–17:00 | Sun: Closed

   Price

   Free (voluntary donation suggested)

   Location

   Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Plazuela El Recreo

   

   Plazuela El Recreo is a small traditional square on block 8 of Calle Pizarro, ringed by ficus trees, with several old trees giving shade. Peru's National Institute of Culture has declared it part of the nation's monumental heritage.

   The centerpiece is a marble fountain in Italian baroque style. It used to stand on the Plaza de Armas and was moved here in the 1930s, so this is what the main square gave up. Look at the fenced frame around it: a statue stands at each of its four corners. Also look for the old water box that once supplied drinking water to the houses of the city.

   The square is a place for cultural life, with concerts and festivals, and in March 2012 it hosted the Trujillo Book Festival; the same year a project to rebuild the square was launched. It's free, and a good place to sit for a moment before the longest leg of the walk.

   From here to Iglesia Santa Ana it's 1,030 meters, about 14 minutes.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Plazuela El Recreo on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Iglesia Santa Ana

   

   Iglesia Santa Ana is counted among the first churches built in Trujillo and the first in the historic center. It appears in a document from 1551, in a list of “churches of the Indians”, under the name Ermita de Santa Ana. Together with Señor de Huamán, San Salvador de Mansiche, Santa Lucía de Moche and the church of Mampuesto, it was one of the original parishes for the indigenous population. The style is baroque; originally the church was entirely white and had just one bell tower.

   The most remarkable story lies beneath your feet. Under the floor rest the remains of Cajazinzin, the last cacique of the Chimú culture, who converted to Catholicism. Find the plaque in the outer courtyard that tells his story.

   The building has survived a lot. The earthquake of 1759 left it badly damaged, and the colonial authorities ordered it rebuilt quickly. The El Niño rains that began in 1997 damaged it so severely that it stood unused until 2015, when it was partly restored to shelter religious images such as the Virgen de la Candelaria on her pilgrimage from Huanchaco to Trujillo. The 2017 floods made things worse and forced an almost complete restoration. After 20 years closed to the public, the church reopened in 2018 and has since become one of the most active churches in the city; during the COVID-19 pandemic its outer courtyards served first for triage and then as a vaccination point.

   Entry is free, and it's worth stepping in for the restored interior and the courtyard plaque. The cathedral is 350 meters away, about 5 minutes, back on the Plaza de Armas.

   Hours

   Mass hours; church open daylight

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Iglesia Santa Ana on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Catedral Basílica de Santa María

   

   The Catedral Basílica de Santa María closes the walk on the square where it began. Its first version was a modest parish church built after the city's founding. In 1616 Pope Paul V raised it to a cathedral, but the earthquake of 14 February 1619 destroyed it along with the city. The rebuilding was entrusted to Bartolomé de las Cuevas, and that church fell in the earthquake of 1635.

   The third attempt is the one you see. Most of it was built by the architect Francisco de Soto Ríos, who began in 1647, and Francisco Balboa completed it in 1666, nineteen years later. In 1911 major changes stripped away part of its original character: the presbytery was widened, a new choir was built over the central door, the brick floor gave way to tiles and the choir stalls were moved to the presbytery. In 1967 Pope Paul VI made it a minor basilica, and only three years later the earthquake of 1970 brought down the bell tower and the dome, which crushed the main altarpiece as it fell. Two decades later the structure was fully restored.

   Inside, the mood is sober. Look for the rococo altarpieces painted white and gold, one baroque altarpiece in the same colors, and canvases from the Cusco and Quito schools of painting. Then walk up to the main altarpiece: it stands free, touching no wall, carved in churrigueresque baroque and covered in gold leaf. Only two altarpieces of this type remain in Peru, this one and the one in the cathedral of Cusco.

   Entry is free, and this is the interior to save time for at the end. When you step out, you're back on the Plaza de Armas, where the walk began.

   Local name

   Catedral de Trujillo

   Hours

   Mon–Fri: 06:00–20:45 | Sat–Sun: 06:00–21:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   arzobispadodetrujillo.org ↗

   Location

   Catedral Basílica de Santa María on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways Through Trujillo's Center

Not every day leaves room for the full line. These two cuts keep the strongest stories and drop the walking where it costs you most.

The main square circuit

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 9

For a first evening or a short stopover: the square, the Freedom Monument, Casa Urquiaga and the cathedral. The first three are about two minutes' walk apart, and the cathedral stands on the same square. All four are free. Plan about an hour and a quarter with Casa Urquiaga and the cathedral inside.

Mansions and stages, without the long leg

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For anyone who wants the mansions, the theater story and El Carmen but not the 14-minute stretch to Santa Ana. That's 1,080 meters and 16 minutes of walking, ending at Plazuela El Recreo. Casa Urquiaga is free, El Carmen asks for a voluntary donation, and the theater only opens with a show ticket. Allow about an hour and three quarters.

How Long the Trujillo Tour Takes, With and Without Interiors

The pure walking time is 34 minutes over 2.5 km, and most legs take a minute or a few. With the interiors that repay a visit, the patios of Casa Urquiaga, El Carmen if its doors are open, Santa Ana and the cathedral, plan about two and a half hours. Palacio Iturregui and the theater are outside views of a few minutes each.

The square circuit takes about an hour and a quarter, the walk as far as Plazuela El Recreo about an hour and three quarters. The route is a line rather than a loop, but because the cathedral stands on the Plaza de Armas, you finish where you began; the GPS navigation can also lead you from the last stop back to the start.

Before You Start Walking in Trujillo

• Start and finish: The recommended start is the Plaza de Armas de Trujillo, and you end at the cathedral on the same square. You can join the route at any stop; the order here is simply the one that flows best.
• Timing: Iglesia y Monasterio El Carmen opens only in short windows that change by weekday, and Casa Urquiaga is not open every day. Check both for your date and set your start time so you reach El Carmen while it's open.
• Entry: Casa Urquiaga, Iglesia Santa Ana and the cathedral are free, El Carmen suggests a voluntary donation, and the squares and the monument cost nothing. The theater is only accessible with a ticket for a performance, and Palacio Iturregui is currently closed.

Common Questions About Walking Trujillo