Lima, its wall and covers

The danger of raids by pirates and corsairs made it necessary to build fortresses and walls in various cities of the Viceroyalty of Peru. There were three walled cities: Trujillo, Callao and Lima. The Wall of our capital was built in compliance with the Royal Decree of May 29, 1683. The Spanish government, always short of funds, commissioned the Lima Cabildo to see the best way to finance the work. The budget amounted to 700,000 pesos, but the work was completed with the expense of only 400,000 pesos. The construction was directed by the cosmographer and mathematician Juan Ramón Koenig, who was also a professor at San Marcos.

The walls would give the city the shape of a triangle “whose main side or base – wrote Manuel A. Fuentes – is supported by the Rímac River. It is two-thirds of a league long from the portal of Monserrate to that of Maravillas, and two-fifths of its greatest width, from the Bridge to the portal of Guadalupe. The total area of ​​the walled part and the lower part of the town called the Arrabal de San Lázaro, is 10 miles in circumference. The protected area, including everything mentioned, was a total of 13,343,680 square yards. The walls had nine portals: Martinete, Maravillas, Barbones, Cocharcas, Santa Catalina, Guadalupe, Juan Simón, Monserrate and Callao, the busiest, although the best decorated was Maravillas. For more than 180 years the walls surrounded Lima, which went from Viceroyalty to Republic. Its defensive capacity, soon surpassed, took away its military value and it only survived as a testimony of the past that, on the other hand, prevented the expansion of the city.

In 1868, one of the most serious yellow fever epidemics in its history occurred in Lima. It started in January and in May the Municipality had to admit that it was facing a phenomenon out of control and of overwhelming severity. In April the epidemic reached its highest levels. The Public Charity, in charge of the hospitals, was chaired by Manuel Pardo and the active vice president was Manuel Amunátegui, director of Trade, who ordered that an area of ​​the newspaper’s premises be enabled to receive between 25 and 30 mourners. Nothing else was enough. The corpses accumulated due to the lack of cars and personnel to take them to the cemetery. Given this situation, the government arranged for military personnel to help with this and other health tasks.

In the streets of the capital, large cylinders were placed where a mixture of gunpowder, bull horns and tar was burned “to disinfect the atmosphere.” From the fort of Santa Catalina, salvos of cannon shots were fired every half hour, which also had the objective of cleaning the atmosphere. Spirits could not be more anguished. More than 5,000 people died in a city of around 100,000 inhabitants. Among the victims were the illustrious jurist José Toribio Pacheco and the Consul General of France, Edmundo de Lesseps, first cousin of the visionary builder of the Suez Canal.

Doctors and other men of science concluded that the walls were the cause of the existing overcrowding in the city that contributed to contagion. The President of the Republic, Colonel José Balta, decided in the Council of Ministers that they be destroyed because they had become “infestation centers of repugnant appearance, notably harmful to public health and a shelter for criminals.” By decree of December 1, 1869, the demolition of the wall was ordered. Contributing to this decision was the copious increase in the population of Lima caused by the people who came, mainly from Chile, to work on the works of the Central Railroad. Henry Meiggs, builder of that railway line and others, presented himself as the only bidder for the demolition of the wall. The price for the work was small, but he asked in exchange for the concession of land adjacent to the walls. He then sold them at huge profits in lots ranging from 400 to 1,600 meters. Predictably, the city began to spread rapidly to the south. In 1872, the Palace of the Exhibition was built, which today is the MALI. Some remains of what was the viceregal belt of Lima remain, the best known being those that bear the name of Parque de la Muralla.