MAP Cusco was born as an initiative of the BBVA Peru Foundation and the Larco Museum in Lima to house and exhibit objects created by the people who have lived in these lands for three thousand years. Artifacts designed and made by men and women from various communities living in the territory that is now Peru, and which surprise us for their high esthetic and artistic value.
Created in order to contribute to expanding inclusive access to culture and education, the BBVA Peru Foundation is present in various regions across Peru through programs to enhance reading abilities and promote art in alliance with institutions of recognized prestige. In addition, the Foundation devotes a large part of its activities to the management of its cultural centers in Cusco, Arequipa and Trujillo.
Alex Fort Brescia
Pedro Brescia Moreyra
Ignacio Lacasta Casado
Mario Brescia Moreyra
Fortunato Brescia Moreyra
Eduardo Torres-Llosa Villacorta
José Ignacio Merino Martín
Javier Marín Estévez
José Carlos López Álvarez
Ismael Benavides Ferreyros
José Manuel García Crespo
Nelson Alvarado Jourde
MAP Cusco is hosted in the emblematic Casa Cabrera, located in the Las Nazarenas square, a short hop from Plaza de Armas. The vestiges found in the entrance to the mansion date the original construction to more than 500 years ago. Studies have revealed the site may have housed a yachaywasi, or “school” in the Quechua language, for the education of children of the Inca nobility.
The present city of Cusco was founded on March 23, 1534. That same year plots were distributed. The property located between the “Nazarenas Square” and “Siete Culebras Street” was given to don Alonso Díaz. In 1558, the house became the Santa Clara Monastery for orphan girls.
In the XVII century, the house became the property of don Gerónimo Luis de Cabrera de la Cerda, and came to be known as Cabrera House. It gradually lost value after the 1650 earthquake.
The Casa Cabrera was used as a school starting in 1906 and for the next 75 years. In 1981, the then Banco Continental purchased the property to restore and open there a cultural center. In 2003, the BBVA Peru Foundation turned it into the present MAP Cusco.