| |
It
is said that when Friar Francisco de San José -a Franciscan
priest from Spain eager to convert the natives to Christianity-
reached this remote region, he decided to stop along the way
and build a chapel to honor the Lord. It was 1725 and Santa
Rosa de Ocopa was just another unassuming village in the Andean
foothills. Over time, however, the small chapel turned into
the operating base from where missionaries set out into the
jungle, bent on converting Asháninka tribes to Catholicism.
Three centuries later, there are two reasons whey Ocopa is
such a priceless historical monument: its ancient colonial
cloisters, which have remained intact since their foundation,
and the library, a unique repository of history and culture
from the colonial and republican eras. The collection not
only includes testimonies of those long nights spent by the
Franciscan friars composing chronicles and travel tales. There
are also 25,000 volumes which are watched over by the guardians
and which attract hundreds of researchers from all over the
world to consult them.
The Ocopa convent also houses unique editions of ancient books
and an art collection featuring valuable oil paintings from
the Huamanga and Cuzco Schools. Turned into a major tourist
attraction, the Ocopa convent features four cloisters -the
Portería, del Olivo, the Obrería and Padre Pío-
groves of trees, an ancient churchbell and its imposing library
which is visited every day by travelers and researchers from
universities in both Peru and from abroad, in search of the
mystical ancient wisdom of the Franciscan monks.
The beautiful Ocopa Convent is also known as the Alexandria
of the Andes. |
|
