Getty Joins Peru's $5 Million Rescue of Earthquake-Hit Andean Church

The Getty will help conserve the 17th-century Church of Santo Tomás de Aquino in the Andean highlands of Peru — the first conservation project ever undertaken on the earthquake-damaged earthen church. Peru's government has committed $5 million to the multi-year initiative.

The church, locally known as the Church of Rondocan, stands in the Cusco region. It is a sacred cultural heritage site. Repeated earthquakes have damaged the building and now threaten its collection of more than 300 cultural objects, which includes:

• 17th- and 18th-century paintings
• gilded wooden retablos and associated sculptures
• ecclesiastical textiles

The $5 million allocation will strengthen the earthen structure and fund conservation of both the building and its holdings. The Getty will contribute staff expertise from across its departments.

Why the building needs seismic retrofitting

The church is built in a Baroque style with thick adobe brick walls. According to the Getty, it is one of many remote earthen sacred sites in the region that have gone without regular maintenance while absorbing earthquake damage over the years.

The Getty's Seismic Retrofitting Project (SRP) uses high-tech analytical techniques to strengthen earthen heritage sites against earthquakes. It also develops long-term plans to monitor and maintain them. A regional office of the Ministry of Culture of Peru will partner with SRP on a comprehensive conservation and seismic retrofitting project. Construction is set to begin in 2027.

Claudia Cancino, principal project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute and project lead for the Sacred Heritage in the Andes Project, said: "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."

"These are the buildings in which so much of daily life in these regions takes place, but they require specialized efforts for their protection," Cancino said in press materials. "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."

What travels to Los Angeles in 2027?

The collection's most notable works include a series of eight paintings by the Italian Jesuit priest and painter Bernardo Bitti (1548–1610). The series, "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"), was painted in Cusco, likely in the later 1590s.

One painting from the series, La Oración en el huerto ("Prayer in the Garden"), will transfer to the Getty in 2027 for scientific analysis and conservation treatment.

Per Britannica, Bitti trained as an artist in Rome before becoming a Jesuit and is credited with introducing Mannerism to Peruvian art. He arrived in Cusco in 1583 and stayed a year, constructing the high altar of the Jesuit church. His travels through Juli, La Paz and Lima, plus repeated visits to Cusco, made him an influence on painters across the Andes.

Why has the collection never been restored?

"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.

"It represents a rare opportunity to document the artifacts, generating knowledge useful to a variety of stakeholders," Auffret said. "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."

Many objects remain in active religious use. "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," Auffret added. "Preserving a collection in use presents challenges as well as valuable exchanges with community members, something not experienced in a museum's context."

With construction starting in 2027 and a Bitti canvas traveling to Los Angeles the same year, the Rondocan project will offer a template for seismic protection at other unstudied earthen churches across Peru.