The colonial church on the Plaza Central houses the Señor Cautivo de Ayabaca, a carved wooden Christ figure that is the most venerated religious image in northern Peru. The statue dates to 1751 and is kept in a glass case inside the main nave. The church itself is modest but handsome, its twin towers visible from most of the town.
The real draw is the annual pilgrimage festival in October, when Ayabaca swells from a quiet mountain town to a city of tens of thousands. Pilgrims arrive on foot from as far as Guayaquil and Lima, many walking for days. If you visit outside festival season, the church is calm and easy to enter; the statue is lit in candlelight and the atmosphere is genuine.