History tells us that in the XVII Century, the Marquis Picoaga arrived at the city of Cuzco to build himself a new home made of stone and decorated with murals. Thinking of his children and with the King’s authorization, he built in the midst of the mountains a place to live.

That is how today, on a traditional little paved street in Cuzco, a few steps away from the main Plaza, you can find the Picoaga Hotel, a place that has preserved both the warmth and the imposing beauty of a big old Colonial house with a service that will make you feel at home.

 

Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire (1200s-1532). Many believe that the city was planned to be shaped like a puma. The city had two sectors: the urin and hanan, which were further divided to each encompass two of the four provinces, Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Qontisuyu (SW) and Collasuyu (SE). A road led from each of these quarters to the corresponding quarter of the empire. Each local leader was required to build a house in the city and live part of the year in Cusco, but only in the quarter of Cusco that corresponded to the quarter of the empire in which he had territory.

After Pachacuti, when an Inca died his title went to one son and his property was given to a corporation controlled by his other relatives (a process called split inheritance), so each title holder had to build a new house and add new lands to the empire, in order to own the land his family needed to maintain after his death.

 

The Picoaga Hotel, originally was the old mansion of the Spanish noble, the Marquis of Picoaga (century XVII). It has now been converted into a comfortable Hotel; intimate and public areas beautifully decorated in colonial style, framed by fine stone archways on two levels; beautiful columns; capiteles and Spanish patio, complete an authentic sample of 17th Century architecture.