The Monastaria de Santa Catalina is located just off the main Plaza in Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. The monastery was founded in 1580 and housed only women from rich Spanish families. It was tradition at the time that the second son or daughter from each family would enter religious service. Each nun paid a high dowry (equivalent to $50,000 today) for entrance to the convent and was required to bring along a 25 items including a statue, a painting, a lamp and clothes. Each had between 1 and 4 slaves. Word is they lived a lavish lifestyle, throwing parties and inviting local musicians to play for them.

The monasterio was enlarged over the centuries until it reached it’s current size of over 20,000 square metres, effectively making it a city within a city. At one time some 450 nuns and their servants resided within the walls although today only 20 or so occupy a small segment of that, the rest being opened to the public.

We took a stroll around while we were in Arequipa and took lots of pictures of the colourfully painted streets and buildings. A few of these are below…