Jirón Ucayali is a major

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

in the

Damero de Pizarro The Cercado de Lima ('Walled Lima'), Damero de Pizarro ('Pizarro's Checkerboard'), or Lima Cuadrada ('Squared Lima') is an area of the Historic Centre of Lima, historic center of Lima (capital of Peru) located within the Walls of Lima, old wall ...

, located in the

historic centre of Lima The Historic Centre of Lima () is the historic city centre of the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. Located in the city's districts of Lima and Rímac, both in the Rímac Valley, it consists of two areas: the first is the Monumental Zone est ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The street starts at its intersection with the

Jirón de la Unión The Jirón de la Unión, or Union Street, is a pedestrian street located in the Historic Centre of Lima, part of the capital of Peru. For many decades it was the most important boulevards of the city, often described as the most aristocratic, wh ...

and continues until it reaches Jirón Paruro. Its route extends to the west along Jirón Ica. Its last block is known as Capón Street, and is the location of the city's

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

. The street has numerous food businesses selling

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n products,

chifa ''Chifa'' is a Chinese Peruvian culinary tradition based on Cantonese elements fused with traditional Peruvian ingredients and traditions. The term is also used to refer to restaurants that serve the ''chifa'' cuisine. Though originating in Pe ...

s and

tea room A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only serve ...

History

The road that today constitutes the street was laid by

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...

when he founded the city of Lima on January 18, 1535. In 1862, when a new urban nomenclature was adopted, the road was named jirón Ucayali, after the

Department of Ucayali Ucayali () is an inland department and region of Peru. Located in the Amazon rainforest, its name is derived from the Ucayali River. Its capital is the city of Pucallpa. It is the second largest department in Peru, after Loreto, and it is sl ...

. Prior to this renaming, each block (''cuadra'') had a unique name: *Block 1: Plateros de San Pedro, after its function as mandated by Vicreroy

Francisco de Toledo Francisco Álvarez de Toledo ( Oropesa, 10 July 1515 – Escalona, 21 April 1582), also known as ''The Viceroyal Solon'', was an aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the fifth Viceroy of Peru. Often regarded as the "best of ...

: it was the location of

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

s that worked with

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

. *Block 2: Villalta. *Block 3: San Pedro, after the convent of the same name. *Block 4: Estudios, after a study room of the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Church of San Pablo. *Block 5: Zavala, after the noble family of the same name. *Block 6: Capón Primera, for reasons unknown. Originally one street, it was divided into two in 1911 under the government of

Guillermo Billinghurst Guillermo Enrique Billinghurst Angulo (27 July 1851, Arica – 28 June 1915, Iquique) was a Peruvian politician of English descent who served as the 37th President of Peru. He succeeded Augusto B. Leguía, from 1912 to 1914. An Anglo-Peruvia ...

. *Block 7: Capón Segunda, now simply known as Capón Street. The " exercise house" of the Sacred Heart was inaugurated in 1725, originally occupying the finca inherited by María Fernández de Córdova y Sande from her father, Lorenzo Fernández de Córdova y Sande, and the building next door (destroyed by the 1746 earthquake). Also located in the street is the Palacio de Goyeneche, a 959.20 m² two-storey building that dates back to the 1760s–1770s once leased to the ''

Seminario de Lima The Seminary of Saint Turibius (), also known as the Seminary of Lima or (), is a priestly seminary in charge of training seminarians to be future priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lima. It is based in Lima, Peru, and is the second old ...

'' and auctioned two years later to Colonel . It was remodeled in 1863 by architect under the

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

. It was ultimately acquired by the ''

Banco de Crédito del Perú Banco de Crédito del Perú is the largest bank and the largest supplier of integrated financial services in Peru with approximately US$39 billion in total assets and a market share of 30.4% in total loans and 33.5% in total deposits. Operations ...

'' in 1971. On January 13, 2024, a code-3 (out of control)

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

consumed a 102-year old building near the street's corner with Abancay Avenue, affecting 16 families.

References

Bibliography

* {{Lima streets

Ucayali The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of Pucallpa is lo ...

Lima District Historic Centre of Lima

History

See also

References

Bibliography