The Municipal Palace

Another historical and architectural monument that surrounds Limas Plaza Mayor is the Municipal Palace.

It occupies the same place that the first town hall of the colony, Nicolás de Ribera "the Old" founded in Lima on 1535.

Its current construction corresponds to 1939, work of José Alvarez C., Emilio Harth Terré and Ricardo de Jara Malachowski.

The Municipal Palace was the place where San Martin declared the independence of Peru from the Spanish crown on the 28th of July 1821.

Even if the facade is of neoclassical style, colonial characteristics like the beautiful wooden balconies remained. Inside impressive white marble stairs lead you up to the golden era of colonial times. The ‘Palacio Municpal’ is really worth a visit. Interesting is the collection of photographs of ancient Lima, impressive the paintings from the Peruvian artists Ignacio Merino (1817 – 1876), José Sabogal (1888 – 1956) and Francisco Laso (1823 – 1869) and absolute astonishing the richly decorated entrance hall. But the highlight is the amazing library in a colonial ambience with treasures like the original of the ‘Charter of Foundation of Lima’ signed by Francisco Pizarro, the ‘Declaration of Independence’ and a piece of stone from the moon.