The Lima city walls were built by Viceroy Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull between 1684 and 1687 to protect Lima against attacks from pirates and privateers. They included 34 bulwarks and eleven gates (ten at the city and one at the other side of the river); their total cost was estimated at 400,000 Spanish dollars. The walls were torn down in 1872 under the presidency of José Balta as part of the expansion process of the city.
Some sections of the walls of Lima can still be seen today. Part of the wall has been restored at the back of the Church of San Francisco, near the Government Palace; this area now constitutes the public Parque de la Muralla (Park of the Wall). In this park it is possible to observe remains of the wall's foundations. In the 1980s, a developer was beginning excavations at the site near the Rimac River and these walls were discovered and later converted into the park.
Famous quotes containing the words walls of, walls and/or lima:
“Do you know what Agelisas said, when he was asked why the great city of Lacedomonie was not girded with walls? Because, pointing out the inhabitants and citizens of the city, so expert in military discipline and so strong and well armed: “Here,” he said, “are the walls of the city,” meaning that there is no wall but of bones, and that towns and cities can have no more secure nor stronger wall than the virtue of their citizens and inhabitants.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)