To these descriptions we can add that of Pedro Pizarro, who also saw the treasure from Cuzco arrive in Cajamarca. Like the other writers, he was impressed with the sheets of gold that had been taken from the Coricancha.
Then there was collected a great deal of gold which Quizquiz assembled by means of causing certain plates to be taken from the House of the Sun, for they were laid on over the stones of the wall and covered the whole front of the house. (Pedro Pizarro 1921: 212 [1571])8
These four descriptions are all developed from eyewitness accounts of the Coricancha itself or from people who saw the materials that were stripped from it and shipped to Cajamarca. They each emphasize the fact that several walls, if not complete buildings, within the complex were covered with sheets of gold. It seems, however, that the gold varied in quality depending on the location of the walls. According to Xerez, more than seven hundred plates of fine gold were removed from the Coricancha and sent to Cajamarca.9 We are told that these covered the walls where the sun shone. A much larger number of sheets of lesser-quality gold, perhaps as many as 2,800, covered other parts of the complex.10 Some of these sheets of lesser-quality gold had also been shipped to Cuzco and arrived several days after the men carrying the finer gold items entered Cajamarca.11
According to Xerez, the planks from the Coricancha were 3–4 palmos (2–2.5 feet) long and had an average weight of 4.5 pounds (Hemming 1970: 64). Because the Spaniards describe prying the planks from the walls with copper crowbars, and sheets were later seen in Cajamarca with what seem to have been nail holes, we can suggest that some of them were attached to the walls of the buildings. Although most of the planks were melted down, there is evidence that some examples were sent to the king in their original form. Las Casas (1958: 193 [ca. 1550: Ch. 58]) may have seen these sheets while they were en route to Spain. He writes:
These plates or pieces of gold were of the size and shape of the leather back pieces which the backs of chairs we use have; they were a little less than a finger in thickness, and I saw plenty of them.12 (Translation by John Rowe; 1944: 38)
It is also worth noting that the earliest accounts of the Coricancha do not describe precious stones as being embedded within the walls of the complex. This more romantic image of the Temple of the Sun was developed later by Garcilaso de la Vega, after much of the complex had been destroyed.
Several other items in the Coricancha, besides its impressive gold-covered walls, attracted the attention of the early Spaniards. There was an altar of gold, referred to as a bench by the chroniclers, on which the principal idol of the Sun stood while it was in the courtyard. This altar was taken to Cajamarca as part of Atahualpa’s ransom and was claimed by Francisco Pizarro as part of his personal share of the loot. There was also a gold fountain that arrived in Cajamarca in pieces (Pedro Pizarro 1921: 212 [1571]; Mena 1929: 37 [1534]; Ruiz de Arce 1933: 371 [ca. 1545]; Xerez 1985: 152 [1534]; Zarate 1995: 59 [1555: Bk. 2, Ch. 14]).13 In addition, there was also an idol of the Sun within the Coricancha called the Punchao. This statue was not taken during the first visit and soon disappeared from Cuzco. However, it was captured some forty years later along with Tupac Amaru Inca (Toledo 1924 [1572]). After the death of Tupac Amaru Inca, it was sent by Toledo to the king of Spain (Julien 1999).
Perhaps the most remarkable of all the features of the Coricancha was the so-called Garden of the Sun, which included various life-size figures made in gold and silver. Pedro Pizarro was the first of the writers to mention the famous garden. His description, even though it was written years later in 1571, is critical because it is the only surviving description of the garden by an actual eyewitness. Pizarro writes:
Away from the room where the Sun was wont to sleep, they made a small field, which was much like a large one, where, at the proper season, they sowed maize. They sprinkled it by hand with water brought on purpose for the Sun. And at the time when they celebrated their festivals, which was three times a year, that is: when they sowed the crops, when they harvested them, and when they made orejones [i.e., male initiation rites], they filled this garden with cornstalks made of gold having their ears and leaves very much like natural maize, all made of very fine gold, which they had kept in order to place them here at these times. (Pedro Pizarro 1921: 255 [1571])14
PHOTO 11.6. Gold stalk with cobs. Sculptures like this once filled the famous garden of the Coricancha. (Courtesy of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin; inventory number VA 64430)
PHOTO 11.7. Maize stalk of hammered copper, Inca, fifteenth century (Denver Art Museum Collection: Museum exchange, 1960.64; © Denver Art Museum 2004)
Although the size and complexity of this garden would grow and grow with each retelling, until in Garcilaso de la Vega’s account it reaches fantastic proportions, there is no doubt that it existed in some form. Evidence of this can be found in the inventory of Atahualpa’s ransom, which included “A gold stalk of maize, of 24 karats, with three leaves and two cobs of gold, which weighed ten marcs, six ounces and four-eighths” (Fernández de Alfaro 1904: 168 [1533]).15 A surviving example of this artistic tradition can be seen in Berlin at the Ethnologisches Museum (Photo 11.6). A second example, albeit of less noble material, is housed in the Denver Art Museum (Photo 11.7).
Other Early Descriptions of the Coricancha
The Coricancha was one of the first places to be plundered by the Spaniards when they took over the city. Unfortunately, few of the men who stripped the complex of its remaining wealth left a written record of what they saw. A foot soldier named Diego Trujillo was one of the first to arrive at the Coricancha. As he approached the complex, the head priest (called the Villac Uma), ran up and tried to block his entrance. Trujillo (1948: 64 [1571]) describes this encounter:
We entered the Houses of the Sun and the Villac Uma, who was like a priest in their religion, said, “How did you enter; anyone who enters must fast for a year first and must carry a load and be barefoot.” But paying no attention to what he said, we entered.16 (Translation by author)
Even though much of the Coricancha’s gold had been taken to Cajamarca months earlier, what remained in the complex astounded the Spaniards. Juan Ruiz de Arce (1933: 372 [ca. 1545]), a horsemen with Pizarro’s forces, tells of the sacking of the Coricancha:
We found many sheep [i.e., llamas] of gold and women and pitchers and jars and other objects. We found a lot in the chambers of the monastery. There was a band of gold as wide as a palmo around the buildings at roof level. This was found in all the chambers of the monastery . . .17 (Translation by author)
Ruiz de Arce is not alone in mentioning that a band of gold once decorated various buildings in the Coricancha.18 For example, Pedro Pizarro (1986: 91–92 [1571]), who had a chance to visit the temple before it was completely sacked, states the following:
They had for this Sun certain very large houses, all of very well made masonry . . . On the front of it there was a band of gold plates more than a palmo wide, fastened upon the stones [of the wall].19 (Translation by author)
Other men who came to Cuzco later were told of the band. Although he never saw it, Betanzos provides the most detailed account, indicating that the gold band was high up on the wall, just under the overhang of the roof. He also suggests that it was a relatively late addition to the temple, having been placed there by Topa Inca Yupanqui.
With this done, Topa Inca Yupanque ordered that a strip two and a half spans wide, very thin, and the thickness of a small tin plate be made from the gold that had been brought. This strip was to be as long as the distance around the lodging where the Sun was. After it was made, the strip was put around that lodging of the Sun. It was placed on the outside, from where the straw roof reaches up to the masonry of the house, which makes the strip of gold as wide as the distance from the straw roof to the masonry. (Betanzos 1996: 127 [1557: Pt. 1, Ch. 28])20
A similar description of the band is also given by Sarmiento de Gamboa (1906: 74–75 [1572: Ch. 36]), who was in Cuzco in 157
2, long after it had been taken down and melted. Until the 1950 earthquake that destroyed much of the Dominican monastery in Cuzco, it was not known how such a band could have been attached to the otherwise smooth and flawless stone exteriors of the buildings. However, with the clearance of the colonial architecture damaged in the earthquake, a series of unusual marks were revealed on the upper tiers of the structures (Ladrón de Guevara 1967; Béjar Navarro 1990). These carvings may once have helped hold the gold band on the exterior face of the buildings within the Coricancha (Photos 11.8 and 11.9).21
PHOTO 11.8. After the 1950 earthquake, a series of unusual marks were revealed on the upper tiers of the structures in the Coricancha. These carvings may once have helped hold the gold band on the exterior face of the buildings. (Courtesy of Fototeca Andina–Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; photograph by Oscar Ladrón de Guevara, ca. 1958)
There are several other accounts of the Coricancha by writers who saw the complex during the Colonial Period. As the descriptions become increasingly sensational through time, it is important to determine what the witnesses actually saw, compared to their interpretations of what was once there. Among the most careful of the early writers in Peru was Cieza de León. He was in Cuzco in 1550 and took keen interest in visiting the Temple of the Sun. Cieza de León (1976: 255 [1555: Pt. 1, Ch. 94]) had, after all, been lured to the Americas after seeing the treasures sent by Pizarro to the king of Spain, much of which had come from the Coricancha.
PHOTO 11.9. Building shown in Photo 11.8 after the reconstruction of the Coricancha. Note the unusual carvings on the uppermost tier of stonework along the front of the building.
Cieza de León states that a finely made wall surrounded a large complex of buildings. Within the complex were four structures of central importance. The gateways and doors as well as many other parts of these structures were covered with sheets of gold. Furthermore, he suggests that many support personnel lived within the complex and that certain ritual supplies were stored there as well. He also indicates that there were two benches (or niches) along an east-facing wall, upon which the light of the rising sun fell (Cieza de León 1976: 145–146 [1553: Pt. 1, Ch. 92]).
Garcilaso de la Vega, like Cieza de León, describes special niches within the Coricancha in detail.22 Calling them tabernacles, he writes:
They had moldings round the edges and in the hollows of the tabernacles, and as these moldings were worked in the stone they were inlaid with gold plates not only at the top and sides, but also the floors of the tabernacles. . . .
In two of these tabernacles in a wall facing east, I remember noticing many holes in the moldings made in the stonework. Those in the edges passed right through while the rest were merely marks on the walls. I heard the Indians and the religious of the temple say that those were the places in which the precious stones were set in pagan times. (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 184 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 3, Ch. 22])23
Part of one of these niches has survived into modern times (Photo 11.10). True to Cieza de León’s and Garcilaso de la Vega’s accounts, it is on an east-facing wall in the courtyard of the complex. Rather than being used to hold “precious stones,” the drillings in this niche were most likely used to hold plates of gold against the fine stonework. Rowe (1944) suggests that the adjacent building, now also partially destroyed, held the second niche mentioned by both Cieza de León and Garcilaso de la Vega. Together, these buildings with their elaborate exterior gold-plated niches may be the buildings referred to by Mena (i.e., “these buildings were sheathed with gold, in large plates, on the side where the sun rises”) and may be the areas from which the Spaniards pried the planks of finest gold.
It is clear that Garcilaso de la Vega had read Cieza de León’s account of the Coricancha before writing his own description of it. Nevertheless, though Garcilaso de la Vega does present a highly romantic vision of the riches of the complex, he also provides other useful details not mentioned by Cieza de León. For example, he notes that there was a large northward-facing gateway into the complex (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 181, 185, 359 [1609: Pt. 1., Bk. 3, Ch. 20, Ch. 23; Bk. 6, Ch. 21]). He also suggests that there were a total of twelve doorways opening onto an interior patio (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 184 [1609:
PHOTO 11.10. An elaborate, east-facing niche within the Coricancha. The right side of the niche and its adjacent wall are original, but the left side of the niche and its adjacent wall have been reconstructed. Note also the small window that was located in the upper back wall of the niche. The holes and grooves cut into the stone were used to attach plates of gold.
PHOTO 11.11. The Christian religious orders of Peru frequently established their first churches in large Inca buildings. An Inca temple in the town of Huaytara continues to be used as a church today.
Pt. 1, Bk. 3, Ch. 22]). Most importantly, however, he states that there was a large building within the complex that he specifically calls the “house of the Sun”:
Coming therefore to the plan of the temple, we should say that the house of the Sun was what is now the church of the divine St. Dominic. I do not give the exact length and breadth because I have not got them, but as far as size is concerned, it exists today. It is built of smooth masonry, very level and smooth. The high altar (I use the term to make myself clear, though the Indians did not, of course, have altars) was at the east end. The roof was of wood and very lofty so that there would be plenty of air. It was covered with thatch: they had no tiles. (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 180 [1609: Pt. 1., Bk. 3, Ch. 20])24
Apparently this large building was still standing, and being used as a church for the Dominicans, when Garcilaso de la Vega left Cuzco in 1560. As noted in the previous chapter, it was not uncommon during early colonial times for the Spaniards to use the long rectangular halls of the Inca as churches. For example, one of the great halls of the Casana was used by the Franciscans as a chapel (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 425–426 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 7, Ch. 10]), and another hall on the plaza was used as the first church of Cuzco (Libro Primero del Cabildo . . . 1965: 33 [1534]). Another example can be seen in the Department of Huancavelica in the town of Huaytara, where an Inca temple continues to be used as a church today (Photo 11.11).
The so-called House of the Sun in Cuzco was destroyed sometime after Garcilaso de la Vega’s departure. The timing of its destruction can be estimated from data provided by two separate chroniclers. Cobo notes that when he was in Cuzco in 1610 he saw a thin sheet of silver between two stones in a wall of the House of the Sun. He writes that at that time “many walls of this edifice were still standing, and on one corner that was still intact part of a thin sheet of silver could be seen in the joint between two stones. I saw it myself on numerous occasions” (Cobo 1990: 49 [1653: Bk. 13, Ch. 12]).25 In contrast, Calancha, writing in 1638, mentions that he personally witnessed the destruction of the building containing the sheet of silver while he was in Cuzco some years earlier (Rowe 1944: 62). This suggests that one of the principal buildings of the Coricancha survived until sometime between 1610 and 1638, when it was demolished in a remodeling of the Dominican church. Perhaps it was during this remodeling episode that the large, formal entrance to the Coricancha was also destroyed. Nevertheless, the new church building that was constructed on this site did not last long, since the Santo Domingo complex suffered badly during the earthquake that struck Cuzco in 1650 (Esquivel y Navia 1980: 93 [1749]; Julien 1995: 313–314).
PHOTO 11.12. Corner of the Plaza de Armas and Avenida Santa Catalina Angosta after the 1950 earthquake (Courtesy of Fototeca Andina–Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; photograph by Antonio Mendoza, 1950)
Garcilaso de la Vega also indicates that directly behind the large House of the Sun was a small courtyard surrounded by five buildings:
Beyond the temple, there was a cloister with four sides, one of which was the temple wall. All round the upper part of the cloister there ran a cornice of gold plates more than a vara wide, which crowned the cloister. In its place the Spaniards had a white plaster cornice made of
the same width as the golden one, in order to preserve its memory. I saw it before I left on the walls which were still standing and had not been pulled down. Round the cloister there were five halls or large square rooms, each built separately and not joined to the others, covered in the form of a pyramid, and forming the other three sides of the cloister. (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 181 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 3, Ch. 21])26
Although in the above account Garcilaso de la Vega states that there were five buildings around the courtyard, he notes later in his work that only three of them remained in good condition: “Of the five halls, I saw the three that were still standing with their ancient walls and roofs. Only the plates of gold and silver were missing” (Garcilaso de la Vega 1966: 184 [1609: Pt. 1, Bk. 3, Ch. 22]).27 Because this courtyard corresponded closely with the European notion of a monastic cloister, it was not destroyed by the Dominicans. The courtyard was preserved and portions of four of the rooms, two on the east side and two on the west, were incorporated into the monastery both before and after the 1650 earthquake.
PHOTO 11.13. The pre-1950 interior of the Coricancha. The large arch was one of the many colonial features of the compound that were removed after the 1950 earthquake to expose more of the Inca remains. (Courtesy of Library of Congress, photograph number 4720 H)
Ancient Cuzco Page 23