Historic centre of Quito
The first historic centre listed as World Heritage, at two thousand eight hundred and fifty metres.
Duration
3 hrs – 5 hrs
Best time
Mid-morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Quito and Kraków were the first two sites inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1978. Quito's centre is the best preserved in Latin America: forty blocks laid out on the Inca then Spanish grid, between two ravines, without a single modern tower.
The Jesuit church is its excess: seven tonnes of gold leaf on the vault, the columns and the altars, on a plan copied from the Gesù in Rome behind a façade of black volcanic stone. It took a hundred and sixty years to finish. The Basilica of the National Vow, higher up, has gargoyles shaped as iguanas and Galápagos tortoises.
Getting there
Trolebús to Plaza del Teatro or Santo Domingo. The centre is walked entirely, up and down.
Rules on site
Two thousand eight hundred and fifty metres: spend the first day quietly, without exertion, and the centre's streets are steeply pitched. The district empties in the evening and snatch thefts are common once the shops close.
