Hotel Monasterio

The Hotel Monasterio is a five-star hotel in Cusco, Peru. It is a refurbished Baroque monastery built in the 17th century on Inca foundations.

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It is located two blocks from the Plaza de Armas. It was originally built in the year of 1595. After being established on the Inca Amaru Qhala’s palace, it was taken over by the Spanish three years later and founded the Seminary of San Antonio Abad. In the year of 1650, a major earthquake struck and damaged the building. During the reconstruction of the building, there was an addition of a chapel. In the year of 1965, the palace was transformed and remodeled into the hotel that it is now. The Hotel Monasterio is considered a historical landmark and is protected by Peru’s National Institute of Culture. There are stones around the entrance doors that still have the original Spanish Arms Escutcheon. It also has the image of Bishop Monsignor Juan Serricolea y Olea. The Chapel is known to be styled in a Baroque style that includes old paintings and gold plated frames. In the centre of the hotel, there is a courtyard that holds a fountain and an old cedar tree that is 300 years old.^[1] The hotel includes Peruvian-style restaurants and a bar that include the following: El Tupay Restaurant, Illariy Restaurant, Deli Monasterio, and the Lobby Bar. ^[2] It was inaugurated after extensive restoration by the Chairman of Peru Hotel, entrepreneur Lorenzo Sousa, in 1995, developing luxury tourism for the first time in Cuzco.

Hotel Monasterio is currently a 50/50 joint venture denominated Peru Orient Express Hotels SA,between Lorenzo Sousa and family, and Orient Express Hotels Ltd, and has won most of the awards in the industry for Peruvian Hotels during the last 15 years.

Hotel Monasterio was obtained by the Sousa group after the privatization process of Entur Peru during 1994 and it opened its doors in the CADE of 1995. Since then Hotel Monasterio has been remodeled two times to update its rooms and common areas, it was the first Hotel to include oxygen inside its rooms to deacrese altitude sickness.

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