Getty Pitches In on First-Ever Conservation of an Earthquake-Damaged 17th-Century Church in the Andean Highlands of Peru

The Getty will work with local authorities on the first-ever conservation project on a 17th-century earthen church in the Andean highlands of the Cusco region of Peru. The Church of Santo Tomás de Aquino, locally known as the Church of Rondocan, is a sacred cultural heritage site. Over the years, earthquakes have damaged the church, and not only the structure but also the church’s collection of more than 300 cultural objects is under threat.

The Peruvian government has allotted $5 million to a multi-year initiative that will strengthen the earthen site and support the conservation and care of both building and collection, which includes 17th- and 18th-century paintings, gilded wooden retablos and associated sculptures, ecclesiastical textiles, and more. The Getty will contribute expertise from staffers across various departments.

In a Baroque style and with thick adobe brick walls, the church, Getty says, is one of many remote earthen sacred sites that have gone without regular maintenance while suffering damage from earthquakes. The Getty’s Seismic Retrofitting Project (SRP) employs high-tech analytical techniques to strengthen earthen heritage sites against quakes and create long-term plans to monitor and maintain them. A regional office of the Ministry of Culture of Peru will work in partnership with SRP to develop a comprehensive conservation and seismic retrofitting project, with construction to begin in 2027.

“Since 2011, the Conservation Institute has worked across Peru with local conservation professionals to conserve some of the country’s most significant earthen architectural buildings,” said Claudia Cancino, principal project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, and project lead for the Sacred Heritage in the Andes Project, in press materials. “These are the buildings in which so much of daily life in these regions takes place, but they require specialized efforts for their protection. With this collective effort, we will be able to provide expertise and support for the Rondocan community, who have been the primary caretakers of the church and its incredible collections for generations.”

Among the most notable works in the collection is a series of eight paintings by the Italian Jesuit priest and painter Bernardo Bitti (1548–1610), “Principales Misterios de la Vida y Muerte de Cristo Nuestro Salvador y de la Virgen Santísima” (“Principal Mysteries of the Life and Death of Christ our Savior and the Holy Virgin Mary”), painted in Cusco, likely in the later 1590s. One painting from the series, La Oración en el huerto (“Prayer in the Garden”), will be transferred to the Getty in 2027 to undergo scientific analysis and conservation treatment.

Per Britannica, Bitti is credited with introducing Mannerism to Peruvian art after training in Rome as an artist and then becoming a Jesuit. He went to Cusco in 1583, remaining there for a year, constructing the high altar of the Jesuit church. His travels in Juli, La Paz, and Lima, as well as numerous visits to Cusco, positioned him as an influence on painters throughout the Andes.

“What makes the church’s collection unique, beyond its richness for such an isolated church, is that no evidence suggests it has ever been restored,” said Stéphanie Auffret, senior project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, in press materials. “As such, it represents a rare opportunity to document the artifacts, generating knowledge useful to a variety of stakeholders. The study of the decorative surfaces of the lateral altarpieces, for instance, with their rarely preserved original materials, will inform the interpretation of similar decorative surfaces in other churches in Peru.”

The work involves objects that are in regular use, added Auffret: “This project also provides a wonderful opportunity to interact with the local community, who care deeply about the site and all its cultural objects, such as the sculptures they carry as part of processions during the Semana Santa. Preserving a collection in use presents challenges as well as valuable exchanges with community members, something not experienced in a museum’s context.”