Getty to Help Repair a 17th-Century Andean Church and Its Paintings

The Getty Conservation Institute, part of the Getty in Los Angeles, will help conserve a 17th-century church high in Peru's Andes. The building is the Church of Santo Tomás de Aquino, also known as the Church of Rondocan, in the Cusco region. Work is due to begin in 2027 and run for five years.

The Getty is working with Peru's Ministry of Culture, the government department that looks after the country's heritage. The partnership goes back to 2011. The ministry said the two sides will jointly promote the conservation and earthquake reinforcement of the church. The Peruvian government will pay the cost of the church work, put at $5 million.

Rondocan sits 3,400 metres above sea level, which is higher than Denver's city centre. The church covers 340 square metres. Its walls are made of adobe, a sun-dried mud brick, and are 1.2 metres thick. Buttresses, which are outside supports, help hold them up, and the roof rests on a wooden truss, a framework of timber beams. The project will include seismic stabilisation, meaning steps to help the building withstand earthquakes, using local materials.

Inside, the church holds a collection of 330 historical objects. Eight of its paintings are by Bernardo Bitti (1548-1610), an Italian Jesuit priest who arrived in Peru in 1575. Bitti brought Mannerism to the Spanish viceroyalty, a late Renaissance style known for elongated figures and crowded, dramatic compositions. One Bitti painting from Rondocan will travel to Los Angeles, where it will be analysed and conserved on the Getty campus.

The Getty has done this kind of work before. Its Conservation Institute completed a project at the Church of Santiago Apóstol in Kuñotambo in 2019, a small 17th-century church in a remote Andean village. That project took about 10 years. Afterwards, the Getty worked with the local community on a maintenance plan, so that the people who live nearby can look after the building over time.

Those who want to hear more can attend a free-to-the-public celebration of Peru's cultural heritage hosted by the Getty Conservation Institute on 19 November 2026. The event runs from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. It will take place at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

For the villagers and parish communities who use Rondocan, the work means a roof, walls and paintings that will be looked after for years to come. The five-year timetable gives the teams a long run of repair, testing and training ahead.