The Plaza Mayor (also called Plaza de Armas) was laid out by Pizarro at the founding of Lima in 1535 and has been the symbolic centre of Peru ever since. Three of its sides are occupied by the yellow-fronted Government Palace (residence of the President, with a changing of the guard at 11:45), the Metropolitan Cathedral (housing what are believed to be Pizarro's bones in a glass casket in a side chapel), and the Archbishop's Palace with its famous carved wooden balconies. The fourth side is the Municipal Palace of Lima.
The bronze fountain in the centre dates from 1651 and is the oldest object in the square. The plaza is the start point for free walking tours of the centre, busy in the afternoons with tourists and Limeños alike, and the route taken by every major political procession from Independence to the present.