The unnamed noblewoman in the shaft tomb was from the Yungas (lowlands), a fact that is emphasized by the presence of coastal sand in her burial. Since the Hatuncancha appears to have been associated with Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, perhaps the shaft tomb contained one of his secondary wives.
Maldonado’s house was badly damaged in the 1650 earthquake. Today little of it, or the Hatuncancha in general, remains. A small section of the exterior wall of the compound, which so impressed the Spaniards when they first arrived in the city, still stands across the street from the cathedral. Within the original area of the Hatuncancha there is also a magnificent, but badly damaged Inca wall that must have been part of a large hall (Photo 10.19). The destruction of the Hatuncancha is emphasized by the fact that one end of this wall juts out into, and is cut by, the Avenida Santa Catalina Angosta.
PHOTO 10.19. A high interior niche and one side of a doorway of what was once a great hall within Hatuncancha can be seen along Avenida Santa Catalina Angosta.
The Pucamarca Compound
Another large compound to the south of the plaza was called Pucamarca.83 Garcilaso de la Vega (1966: 424 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 7, Ch. 9]) suggests that this ward was associated with Topa Inca Yupanqui; however, he may have been confused with the adjacent compound, Cusicancha, in which Topa Inca Yupanqui was born. The area of Pucamarca is also briefly mentioned by Guaman Poma de Ayala (1980: 310 [1615: 337 (339)]).
Little additional information is available on this sector of Cuzco other than scattered, and partially contradictory, references to the locations of two temples within it.84 Cobo (1990: 58 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]), while describing the shrines of Cuzco, states that Pucamarca was “a house or temple designated for the sacrifices of the Pachayachachic [Creator] in which children were sacrificed and everything else.”85 Elsewhere he notes that there was a temple named Pucamarca “in the houses which belonged to the Licentiate [Antonio] de la Gama;86 in it was an idol of the Thunder called Chucuylla” (Cobo 1990: 57 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]).87 These two temples are also mentioned by Albornoz, who writes, “Pucamarca quisuarcancha, which was the house of the Creator and of the Thunders.”88
Molina, when writing of the works of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, provides a few additional details on these temples and the ward of Pucamarca:89
. . . he ordered built the houses and temple of Quisuarcancha, which are above the houses of Diego Hortiz de Guzmán,90 coming from the plaza of Cuzco, where Hernando López de Segovia91 now lives. There he put the gold statue of the Creator, the size of a ten-year-old boy. It was in the shape of a man standing, the right arm raised high with his hand almost closed and his fingers raised, like a person who was ordering.92 (Translation by author)
In a later section of his account, Molina offers supporting, yet slightly contradictory information, suggesting that the temple of Quisuarcancha was located in Pucamarca, but in the house lot owned by Isabel de Bobadilla (not Hernando López de Segovia):
. . . they carried to the Temple of the Sun the figures called Chuquilla and Wiracocha, which had their own temple in Pucamarca and Quisuarcancha which are now the houses of Doña Isabel de Bobadilla.93 (Translation by author)
Loarte (1882: 230 [1572]), writing in Cuzco at the same time as Molina,94 confirms the fact that Isabel de Bobadilla owned a house in Pucamarca.
In sum, although our information is fragmentary at best, it seems likely that the area of Pucamarca was located in the large city block to the west of the Acllahuaci and south of the Hatuncancha. If this is the case, then the impressive Inca wall that remains on Maruri Street may have belonged to Pucamarca (Photo 10.20). Within this sector of Cuzco were two temples, one dedicated to the Creator god and the other to Thunder.95
Cusicancha
Another compound was situated between Pucamarca and the Temple of the Sun. Garcilaso de la Vega (1966: 424 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 7, Ch. 9]) notes the existence of this ward, but he states that he had forgotten its name. Fortunately, both Albornoz and Cobo identify it as Cusicancha (Happy Enclosure) in their descriptions of the shrines of Cuzco.96 Albornoz writes of a shrine called “Cusicancha pachamama [Happy Enclosure, Earth Mother], which was the house where Topa Inca Yupangui was born.”97 Similarly, Cobo (1990: 57 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]) notes that Cusicancha “. . . was the place where Inca Yupanqui was born, opposite the temple of Coricancha; for this reason the members of the ayllo Inacapanaca98 sacrificed there.”99
Other Important Buildings in Cuzco
There were various other important buildings within Cuzco for which we have little information. For example, near the ward of Cusicancha was a prison.100 Furthermore, a house called Condorcancha, in which Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui lived, may have been within Hatuncancha (Cobo 1990: 55 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]), and a palace of Topa Inca Yupanqui may have been located where the convent of San Agustín was built (Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua 1950 [ca. 1613]).
PHOTO 10.20. The impressive Inca wall that remains on Maruri Street may have belonged to Pucamarca. (Courtesy of the Latin American Library, Tulane University; photograph by E. George Squier, 1865)
PHOTO 10.21. The Church of San Blas may mark the former location of the Temple of Thunder.
On the north side of central Cuzco, on a street that still displays finely made Inca walls, was a house belonging to Huayna Capac called Pomacorco (Bauer 1998: 55). Farther up the hill was the famous Palace of Colcapata, which housed the Conquest Period Kings of Cuzco: Manco Inca, Paullu Inca, and Carlos Inca. Nearby, in the area formerly known as Totocachi (now called San Blas), was another temple for Thunder. Cobo writes,
The Thunder also had a separate temple in the Totocachi district. Inside the temple there was a gold statue of the Thunder placed on a litter of the same metal. This statue was made by the Inca Pachacuti in honor of the Thunder, and he called the statue Inti Illapa. Pachacuti took this statue as a brother, and during his lifetime he carried it with him whenever he went to war. This idol was greatly venerated, and it was served in a very stately and ceremonious fashion. (Cobo 1990: 33 [1653: Bk. 14, Ch. 7])101
It was within this temple that the mummified body of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui was found by Polo de Ondegardo in 1559 (Acosta 1986 [1590: Ch. 21]; Cobo 1990: 54 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 13]). It seems likely that this temple was located where the Church of San Blas was later constructed (Photo 10.21).
Finally, it should be noted that even Atahualpa, whose captains sacked Cuzco on the eve of his encounter with Pizarro in Cajamarca, had a large hall in Cuzco. In the Libro Primero del Cabildo . . . (1965 [1534]) we find that Antonio de Espinoza, Pedro de la Carrera, and Juan de Andagoya each had lands associated with the galpón of Atahualpa. Its precise location, however, remains to be identified.
Summary and Discussion
The city of Cuzco was the imperial capital of the Inca. Rebuilt and expanded by a series of successful kings, the city held some of the greatest architectural works of the Americas. Around its great central plaza stood several palaces and at least four large halls. The major temples of the empire, including those of the Sun, Moon, Thunder/Lighting, and the Creator god, were also located near the plaza, along with the impressive facilities that housed an elite class of women who helped support the temples.
At the height of its Inca architectural splendor, the city of Cuzco was built on a loose grid system of large compounds divided by narrow streets. The compound walls were substantial, with some reaching 4 or 5 meters in height and made of superbly crafted stones. A few of these exterior walls have survived and can still be seen. Within the compounds, however, were hundreds of smaller buildings, many of them also built of stone. Almost all of these smaller buildings were destroyed after the Spaniards divided the compounds among themselves in 1536 and began to rebuild the city along European conventions.
At this time, not only were the interiors of the royal compounds of the city completely gutted and transformed, but new sacred spaces were created by the Europeans with the construction of several immense religious structures. These incl
uded the Cuzco Cathedral; the Franciscan, Jesuit, and Dominican churches; and the convents of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina, to name only a few. Acosta, writing in 1580, describes how the work was organized as the stones from the Inca buildings were taken to build the new structures of Spanish Cuzco:
For the foundation [the Indians] have brought ancient cut stones in such quantities that even if the church were to be twice as large, there would be a surplus. They take these stones from old buildings . . . of the time of the Incas. Organizing themselves by ayllus, or kin groups, to carry the stones to our church, and dressing as for a festival with their feather ornaments and adornments, they come through the city singing in their language . . . Even women transport stones and do their work while singing. (Acosta 1954 [1580]; translation by Sabine MacCormack 1991: 252)
In other words, not only were the new Spanish structures built on top of important Inca buildings and plazas, but their construction required vast amounts of stone, much of which was acquired through the demolition of nearby royal palaces and temples. With this destruction, the character of Cuzco was forever changed.
CHAPTER 11
The Coricancha
THE MOST FAMOUS SANCTUARY in the Inca Empire was the Coricancha, called “Templo del Sol” (Temple of the Sun) by the Spaniards. Coricancha translates as “Golden Enclosure,” a name that derives from the gold sheets that were attached to its walls. This great sanctuary was located on a slight rise in the heart of Cuzco, near the confluence of the two small, canalized rivers that flow through the city. It was built out of the exquisitely cut stone blocks for which the Inca are justifiably famous (Photos 11.1 and 11.2). Soon after the Spaniards took control of Cuzco, the sanctuary was taken over by the Dominican order and construction was begun on a church and adjacent monastery. Today, nearly five centuries later, the Dominicans continue to control the sanctuary.
The Coricancha was actually a series of buildings and courtyards surrounded by a large exterior wall. Within the complex were a series of temples dedicated to various deities, as well as various rooms for the support personnel and offering materials (Photo 11.3 and Figure 11.1). Together, these formed an impressive architectural complex that dominated the center of the city and was visible from a great distance. Cobo offers the following description of the Coricancha:
The most important and most sumptuous temple of this kingdom was the one located in the city of Cuzco; this temple was held to be the chief center or capital of their false religion and the most venerated sanctuary that these Indians had, and for this reason, it was visited by all of the people of the Inca Empire, who came to it out of devotion on pilgrimages. This temple was called Coricancha, which means “house of gold,” because of the incomparable wealth of this metal which was embedded in the temple’s chapels and walls, its ceilings and altars.
Although this temple was dedicated to the Sun, statues of Viracocha, the Thunder, the Moon, and other important idols were placed there. (Cobo 1990: 48–49 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 12])1
Unlike many other features of Inca Cuzco, the Coricancha has been the subject of substantial research, beginning with Squier’s visit in 1865. He lived for a short period with the monks of Santo Domingo and took two photographs of the Coricancha’s interior courtyard (Photos 11.4 and 11.5). Elements of both of these photographs were later combined in a single engraving (Figure 11.2). Squier (1877: 441) also produced the first map of the interior of the Coricancha and an engraving of its famous curved wall (Figure 11.3).2
Notable early-twentieth-century studies include those of Uhle (1930 [1905]) and Lehmann-Nitsche (1928), as well as that of a local Dominican priest named Rosario Zárate (1921), each of which provides descriptions and plans of the complex. These accounts pale, however, in comparison to John H. Rowe’s (1944) extensive discussion of the Coricancha. Although Rowe’s observations have been recently updated by Gasparini and Margolies (1980), Béjar Navarro (1990), and Hyslop (1990), his report on the Coricancha remains the definitive study of this Inca temple.
PHOTO 11.1. The famous curved Inca wall of the Coricancha rests under the belvedere of Santo Domingo. (Courtesy of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico; photograph by Edgar Lee Hewett, 1935, Negative 92 23.236)
PHOTO 11.2. Outside wall of the Coricancha along Avenida Ahuacpinta (Courtesy of Fototeca Andina–Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; photograph by Cesar Meza, ca. 1940)
FIGURE 11.1. Santo Domingo stands above the remains of the Coricancha. (Squier 1877: 430)
PHOTO 11.3. Early photograph of Santo Domingo and the Coricancha. This photograph was taken from the far side of the Saphy River that is now covered with the Avenida del Sol in central Cuzco. This photograph was used to make the etching shown in Figure 11.1. (Courtesy of the Latin American Library, Tulane University; photograph by E. George Squier, 1865)
PHOTO 11.4. Monks in the courtyard of Santo Domingo (Courtesy of the Latin American Library, Tulane University; photograph by E. George Squier, 1865)
FIGURE 11.2. The courtyard in Santo Domingo. Compare this etching with Photos 11.4 and 11.5. Note that the locations of trees, the fountain, and various monks have been altered. (Squier 1877: 440)
PHOTO 11.5. Monks and stone fountain in the courtyard of Santo Domingo (Courtesy of the Latin American Library, Tulane University; photograph by E. George Squier, 1865)
Atahualpa’s Ransom and the Gold of the Coricancha (1533–1534)
The Coricancha contained many of the finest gold and silver objects of the empire and was partially sacked in 1533 as part of Atahualpa’s ransom. Accounts of the gold-covered walls of this complex were included in the initial reports of Francisco Pizarro’s stunning achievements, which were published a year later in Spain, and they helped to fire the public’s imagination of the great riches of Peru. The earliest description was written by Cristóbal de Mena, who returned to Spain on one of the first ships to arrive from Peru carrying both news of, and treasure from, the newly won Inca Empire. Mena, who had been in Cajamarca to hear the accounts of the first three Christians to see Cuzco, provides the following narrative of the stripping of the Coricancha:
Then he [Quizquiz] sent them to some buildings of the Sun in which they worshipped. These buildings were sheathed with gold, in large plates, on the side where the sun rises, and on the part that was more shaded from the sun the gold in them was more debased. The Christians went to the buildings and, with no aid from the Indians, who did not want to help, saying that it was a building of the Sun and they would die, the Christians decided to remove the ornament from these buildings with some copper crowbars; and so they did, as they related it themselves.3 (Translation by John H. Rowe; 1944: 37–38)
FIGURE 11.3. The curved wall of the Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) (Squier 1877: 443)
The men found several different chambers and courtyards within the Coricancha that also contained items of gold and silver. In the central courtyard they found a large gold fountain. In one room they recovered a great altar of gold, and in another they found the mummified remains of Atahualpa’s father (Huayna Capac) and those of another lord surrounded by many gold and silver objects (Mena 1929: 37 [1534]). Though the Spaniards took the fountain and the altar to Cajamarca, much of Huayna Capac’s wealth remained in Cuzco until Pizarro’s full expeditionary force arrived there several months later (Ruiz de Arce 1933: 371, 372 [ca. 1545]).
Francisco de Xerez, secretary to Francisco Pizarro, returned to Spain with part of Atahualpa’s ransom a few months after Mena. Like Mena, Xerez had been in Cajamarca to hear the accounts of the imperial city given by the returning three Christians. Xerez (1985: 152 [1534]) states that there were two buildings in Cuzco that were covered with gold.4 He also tells of the stripping of the gold plates from these buildings as well as their arrival in Cajamarca:
[They saw] a house in Cuzco plated with gold. The house is very well made and square and measures three hundred and fifty paces from corner to corner. They removed seven hundred of these gold plates from the house that in
all weighed five hundred pesos. And from another house the Indians removed a total of two hundred thousand pesos, but because it was of very low (quality), having (only) seven or eight karats, they did not accept it. They did not see more than these two plated houses, because the Indians did not allow them to see the whole city. . . .
All this gold arrived in one hundred and seventy-eight loads, with four Indians carrying each load in a litter. They brought very little silver. The gold was brought to the Christians little by little, very slowly, because they needed many Indians, and they collected them in each town [they passed]. It was believed that it would arrive in Cajamarca in one month. However, the gold that came from Cuzco arrived in the town of Cajamarca on the thirteenth of June of that year. Two hundred loads of gold and twenty-five of silver came. The gold appeared to be more than one hundred and thirty carats. And after this had arrived, another sixty loads of lower [-quality] gold arrived, most of which was in plates, like the boards of a box, each three and four palmos long. This had been removed from the walls of the houses, and they had holes in them that seem to have been for nails.5 (Translation by author)
Pedro Sancho became secretary to Francisco Pizarro after the departure of Xerez for Spain. Sancho’s (1898: 310 [1534]) account of the conquest of Peru begins with a description of the gold arriving in Cajamarca from Cuzco.
The two Spaniards that brought the gold from Cuzco arrived and immediately part of the gold was melted because they were small and very fine pieces. It added up to five hundred (plates) of gold pulled from some walls of the house of Cuzco.6 The smallest plates weighed four or five pounds each and other sheets (weighed) ten to twelve pounds. The walls of the temple were covered with these. They also brought a seat of very fine gold, worked into the form of a footstool that weighed eighteen thousand pesos. They also brought a fountain of pure gold, very subtly worked, which was something to see, not only for the quality of its work but also for the shape in which it was made. And many other vessels, pots, and plates were also brought.7 (Translation by the author)
Ancient Cuzco Page 22
