Jirón de la Unión runs ten blocks south from the Plaza Mayor to Plaza San Martín, a busy pedestrian shopping street that has been Lima's main commercial thoroughfare since the 19th century. The architecture mixes colonial and Belle Époque facades with later glazed shopfronts. Halfway down, the Iglesia de la Merced has one of the most ornate baroque facades in Lima.
The street is crowded, lively, and reasonably safe in the daytime, with chain shops, fast-food joints, money changers (calculator-touters at every corner), and a constant stream of pedestrians. Plaza San Martín at the southern end is the other great plaza of central Lima — flanked by the elegant Hotel Bolívar, the Club Nacional, and a bronze equestrian statue of San Martín.