A few blocks east of the Plaza Mayor, the yellow Baroque facade of the Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco is one of the most striking buildings in the centre. Survived the 1746 earthquake more or less intact — the only major colonial church in Lima to do so — and is consequently the best place to see the interior decoration of a 17th-century Lima church as the colonists knew it. The cloisters have a famous azulejo (Seville tile) lining; the library holds a 25,000-volume colonial collection including incunabula and a copy of the first Bible printed in Spanish.
The catacombs are the main draw. From the 16th century until 1808, they served as the city's principal cemetery. An estimated 70,000 people were buried in stacked vaults, and the bones were later sorted into geometric arrangements — concentric circles of skulls and femurs in deep circular pits. Guided tours wind through narrow underground passages and ossuaries.