A founding inspired by faith — 1579

In 1579, in a young Arequipa still under construction, doña María de Guzmán — a wealthy widow of deep faith — decided to devote her fortune to creating a monastery dedicated to Saint Catherine of Siena. The authorisation came from viceroy Francisco de Toledo, and the founding act, signed on 10 September, was endorsed by the Cabildo of Arequipa and the bishopric of Cuzco — for the city did not yet have its own archbishopric. That decision, made in a time of religious fervour and colonial consolidation, gave rise to one of the most remarkable monastic complexes on the continent.

The monastery was conceived above all as a refuge for the daughters of Arequipa's wealthier criollo and mestizo families, many of whom could not marry due to a lack of dowry. Over time it also welcomed novices of more modest means, while servants and lay women supported the everyday life of the precinct. Behind the sillar walls, a self- sufficient community took shape, with streets, plazas and passageways that echoed the Andalusian cities of its origin.

Doña María de Guzmán and the early years

María de Guzmán was named the first inhabitant and prioress of the monastery, a role she held during its earliest years. The founding promise was simple: to raise a place where contemplative life could flourish under the protection of the Dominican Order. The first cloister, modest and functional, marked the start of an expansion that would unfold over more than two centuries.

The 1582 earthquake and the rebuilding

Barely three years after the founding, a violent earthquake shook Arequipa and severely damaged the first buildings. Far from halting the project, the community embarked on a patient reconstruction, drawing on the abundance of sillar — the white and pink volcanic stone of the Chachani and Misti volcanoes that would give the monastery its unmistakable character. Over the following centuries, further seismic events (1687, 1784, 1868) called for new restorations that the monastery always managed to absorb.

Through those centuries the monastery grew in silence, adding cloisters, cells, courtyards and chapels. Each generation left its mark, shaping an architectural palimpsest that today reads like a city suspended in time.

A living legacy

More than four hundred years on, doña María de Guzmán's legacy is still alive. The nuns continue to inhabit a reserved area of the monastery, while since 15 August 1970 the rest has been open to the public to share this heritage memory with the world.