Jirón Cuzco is a major

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

in the

Damero de Pizarro The Cercado de Lima ('Walled Lima'), Damero de Pizarro ('Pizarro's Checkerboard'), or Lima Cuadrada ('Squared Lima') is an area of the Historic Centre of Lima, historic center of Lima (capital of Peru) located within the Walls of Lima, old wall ...

, located in the

historic centre of Lima The Historic Centre of Lima () is the historic city centre of the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. Located in the city's districts of Lima and Rímac, both in the Rímac Valley, it consists of two areas: the first is the Monumental Zone est ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The street starts at its intersection with the

Jirón de la Unión The Jirón de la Unión, or Union Street, is a pedestrian street located in the Historic Centre of Lima, part of the capital of Peru. For many decades it was the most important boulevards of the city, often described as the most aristocratic, wh ...

and continues until it reaches Jirón Huánuco in

Barrios Altos Barrios Altos is a Peruvian neighbourhood that forms the eastern part of Lima District, part of the historic centre of the city. It owes its name to the fact that, topographically, it is higher than the rest of the old part of the City, due to t ...

History

Iglesia y monasterio de la Trinidad de Lima

The road that today constitutes the street was laid by

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...

when he founded the city of Lima on January 18, 1535. In 1862, when a new urban nomenclature was adopted, the road was named jirón Cuzco, after the

department of Cuzco Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth-largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de Dios and Puno ...

. Prior to this renaming, each block (''cuadra'') had a unique name: *Block 1: Espalda de la Pileta de la Merced, after the fountain of the convent of the same name. *Block 2: Higuera, after either the

fig tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

s or one of the families of the same name. *Block 3: Trinidad, after the convent of the same name. *Block 4: Corcovado, after a doctor of the city (according to

José Gálvez Barrenechea José Gálvez Barrenechea (7 August 1885 – 8 February 1957) was a Peruvian poet, writer, journalist, university professor, and politician. He was Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (Peru), Minister of Justice, Worship and Instruction (1931) ...

. *Block 5: Mascarón, possibly a bastardisation of a butler's name. *Block 6: Zamudio, after the Zamudio de las Infantas family, who lived there. Alternatively, it was known as the Callejón del Gigante, after Juan Núñez, a Huamanga-born

mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

known for his large height. *Block 7: San Pedro Nolasco, after the school and convent of the same name. Alternatively known as Llanis, for reasons unknown. *Block 8: Granados, after either the pomegranate trees or one of the families of the same name. *Block 9: Tobal, after the

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

(''toba'') that had formed on the street. *Block 10: Pampa de Lara, after the family of the same name. The street passes through the Mesa Redonda shopping district, best known for its

pyrotechnics Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating fireworks, but also includes safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts (and other fasteners), parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, q ...

industry. Consequently, it has been the location of the district's fires, most notably the 2001 fire, and most recently in 2019 and 2021.

References

Bibliography

* {{Lima streets

Cuzco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire unti ...

Lima District Historic Centre of Lima

History

See also

References

Bibliography