Walking the streets of Cusco Part II

In this article, you will find some meanings of the names of the streets of Cusco, so that you can do city walking tour through the city knowing the most curious and interesting streets of the historic center of this millenary place. Here, we present the list of the streets that you can visit in Cusco:

• Calle de Loreto: This alley was called Amaru Kancha since the “Amaru Kancha” (fence of the snake) was located in this alley. Now it is called Calle de Loreto due to its proximity to the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto.
• Calle Mantas: This street was known as “Calle de las Mantas” since 1744. And it was so-called because the merchant Sillerigo put silk steam blankets on sale and display.
• Calle de la Coca: On the right corner of this street is the Valverde house, where the chronicler and historian Garcilaso de la Vega was born.
• Calle del Marqués: In this street is located the house of Don Diego de Esquivel y Jaraba, the first Marquis of San Lorenzo de Valleumbroso. Even today, on its façade there is a beautiful Inca wall with openings and stone overhang.
• Calle del Tigre: Its name dates from the government of Bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo, who took possession of its headquarters in 1673. The name of the street is because an apprentice painter, who was in the service of the famous Diego Quispe Tito, and whose parents lived in one of the houses on this street, had the bad taste to paint on the wall the figure of a wild cat, to scare the passing boys. Since then they called it “Calle del Gato”, a name that derived from “Calle del Tigre”.
• Calle Purgatorio: It was called this way due to the practices by a collector of taxes, imposed by the purchase and sale of merchandise, named Colmenares. Tradition says that to get money without working, he exploited the faith, fear, and pity of passersby to collect alms. Colmenares took advantage of the fact that in one of the houses on the street, an old curmudgeon and scandalous died. After his death, the rumor began to spread that the soul of the old woman was grieving. Taking advantage of these events, Colmenares, dressed in a black tunic and a mask that imitated a skull and, holding a pot with greased rags that burned, went out after nine at night on wooden stilts and with a box in which he said: “An alms for the souls in Purgatory”. It was like this people did not take long to call this narrow passage “Calle del Purgatorio”.

This tour through the streets of Cusco can be done quietly and walking at your own pace. You can also do it by riding a bicycle. You can take a beautiful tour through the streets of Cusco alone or be accompanied and take interesting photographs of your trip, remember that in Peru private tour we offer you this tour with a team of professionals and accredited tour guides.