Laura Torres Roa / Jorge Álvarez-Builla
The Peruvian capital is a city of paradox. The urban layout of its historic centre is the most perfect Cartesian grid in South america, yet mass migratrions have generated large informal settlements. Its society lives in a permanent state of commercial frenzy, yet it has preserved the oldest traditions of the continent. And the best-known works of architecture are viceregal and republican, yet pre_Columbian ruins are scattered across the city.
This guide contains over 160 works, covbering the main styles of architectures in each period, as wll as the urban processes that have underpinned the construction of such works, the economic activities that have made them possible and details of their public administration.
Until now, Lima has shown the world a gloomy, unattractive ambience. Writer Herman Melville described it as "the strangest, saddest city thou can´st see,`poet César Moro as "Lima, the Horrible" and architect Héctor Velarde as "Lima, the grey". This guide offers a different picture: one of a vibrant, cheerful and insanely glorius city, inviting visitors and residents to see it in a new light.
