The church on Parque Pino, two blocks north of the cathedral. The Iglesia San Juan Bautista is not especially old or architecturally distinguished, but it holds Puno's most important religious icon — the image of the Virgen de la Candelaria, around which the city's enormous February festival is built.
For most of the year the church is quiet, with a steady stream of locals coming to leave candles at the side altar. In the days around the festival of the Candelaria, the queues stretch out into the square and the church becomes the focal point of the entire city.