Calles de Coca and Bodegones, Lima

Lima, the capital city of Peru, was founded by Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, three years after he and his troop of conquistadors defeated the Inca emperor Atahualpa.

As other South American cities, Lima was built according to the colonial town planning of that period, which was influenced by the Renaissance theories on Antiquity: a tight network of streets around a four-sided civic center, the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor, comprising the cathedral and the Presidential Palace. Wooden balconies are also typical of that colonial style.

This picture was very probably engraved after a lithograph by Charles Rivière, whose real name was Charles François de Riffardeau, duc de Rivière. He was a son of a French diplomat, and seemed to be particularly active around 1860 when he executed a number of lithographs showing various Parisian buildings and a series of views of London (1862).

The caption reads in the original French: Calles de la Coca et de Bodegones, à Lima.