The Alameda, in the heart of the northern district of Rimac, north of the river Rimac and the centre of the city, was originally built in 1611 by the Marquis de Montesclaros.
Later in 1770 Viceroy Manual de Amat refurbished it, adding donated fountains from the chief of Lima’s bullfighting ring.

Later still more additions and renovations were carried out by President of the Republic Ramon Castilla. He imported and enclosed the alamenda with cast iron railings from Victorian England in 1856. In the same year it was adorned with marble statues depicting the signs of the zodiac and 100 iron urns, again from England.

The wide alameda is surrounded by colonial churches, the one at the north, Convento de los Descalzos hosts a museum. Now run down and covered in graffiti, the municipality of Rimac does little to care for the alameda – perhaps because it can’t. Although once a wealthy district it is now one of the poorest. Millions of poor flocked to the city of Lima over the past 100 years building low quality illegal houses on the hills the surround Rimac and most of the city.

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Tags: 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, british, colonial, lima, rimac