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Places to visit within 30 km.

Joyería Cuencana Museum

The museum displays materials and tools for the jewelry work. It is located in a cultural heritage property. The craftsman in charge performs live demonstrations of the process as well as allows the visitor to interact and be part of the making process

0.51 Km.

Cloister and Wood-Turning Lathe of El Carmen

The facade of the Cloister and Church of Carmen de La Asunción is one of the most interesting places in the Historical Centre of Cuenca (World Heritage Site by UNESCO), due to the colorful images it generates together with the Flowers’ Market. The order of nuns of El Carmen or "Carmelitas Descalzas" (Barefoot Carmelitas) was established in the city of Cuenca in the year 1682. The Monastery occupies the inside of the block opposite where the New Cathedral stands today. The most representative feature of this cloistered monastery is the wood-turning lathe, which is fitted into a hole in the wall next to the entrance door to the convent. It is used to pass objects from the outside to the inside and vice versa, without the people who give or receive them being seen. In other words, the lathe is an intermediary object between the cloister and the outside world, the means of communication between the contemplative and profane life. A few steps away from the wheel is a picture of the "Lord of Justice", which the Catholic faithful use to ask for divine intervention when they believe that earthly justice has failed them. People come to the wood-turning lathe to ask for spiritual advice. On the lintel of the entrance door to the monastery one can read "This is God's house and the door to heaven". People also go to the wood-turning lathe or to the humble shops next to the entrance of the house, in search of artisan products made by the Carmelites with medicinal plants and flowers, which they cultivate in the gardens of the cloister. They have a natural apothecary's shop. The "agua de pítimas" is the most popular. After drinking it people ask for a "piti más" or a little bit more. Other products are: red, white, blackberry and passion fruit wine, radish syrup, multivitamin syrup, lotion for muscle aches, pigeon jelly, lemon cream, cakes and snacks. The convent houses mural paintings, the most important in Cuenca and one of the most outstanding in America, sculptures and an enormous cliff or birthplace of Jesus. It is an authentic museum of religious art. The Carmelites are in charge of preserving the image of the "Traveler Child ", a sculpture of the newborn Jesus, and they also embroider his clothes by hand. This representation of Jesus Christ as a child presides every year, on December 24th, over the Pase Mayor or "Parade of the Traveler Child". The construction of the Church of Carmen began in 1727. It has a portal with Solomonic columns. It is small, with only one nave.

0.53 Km.

House of the Toquilla Straw Hat

A walk through the workshops and museums of the toquilla straw hat, curiously worldwide known as "Panama Hat", will make you discover that in fact it is original from and elaborated in Ecuador. One of the regions where it is woven is in the Ecuadorian Southern Andes, in the provinces of Azuay and Cañar. On December the 5th, 2012 UNESCO declared the traditional knitting of the toquilla straw hat as Intangible World Heritage. In order to recover the historical memory of this handicraft the Municipal Museum-Workshop “Casa del Sombrero” (House of the Hat) was inaugurated in 2014, in the city of Cuenca. It is located is in an old and emblematic house that functioned as a factory of hats. The initiative is public and free to enter. The elaboration of the hat was the economic foundation of the Ecuadorian population, especially in the south of the country, during the 20th century. Private initiatives also contribute to keep spaces where the story of the Toquilla straw hat is told. The first is the “Hat Museum” of the Paredes Roldán family (Calle Larga and Padre Aguirre, Historic Center, Cuenca, Ecuador). The factory continues operating on the site and the visitor can buy a custom-made hat. The second space is the Museum “La Magia del Sombrero” of the Homero Ortega company (Avenida Gil Ramirez Davalos 3-86, behind the Land Terminal, Cuenca, Ecuador). In 1830 the hats were commercialized in Panama. The Ecuadorian hat gained popularity because of being: resistant, light weighted, foldable for storage, combinable with light summer clothing and because of allowing sweat to evaporate. When the Panama Canal was constructed the workers used it and in 1903 a photograph of the President of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt, wearing this hat during a visit to the canal was widely publicized, which gave rise to the name of “Panama hat”. All this history and industry is based on the work of thousands of artisans and weavers who live in the small towns near Cuenca, such as Chordeleg, Gualaceo, Sígsig, Azogues and Biblián. The hat is also known as the “Jipijapa hat” or “Montecristi hat”, towns at the Ecuadorian Pacific coast that were the original centers of its elaboration.

0.54 Km.

Cuenca's Old Cathedral & Museum

The Old Cathedral or Iglesia del Sagrario is an emblematic building in the Historic Center that marks the south-east corner of Calderon Park. It is considered to be the oldest building in Cuenca. The church was planned since the very moment of the city’s foundation in 1557, when the original layout designated a block of land to build it. Its foundations were built with carved stones from the Cañari-Inca city of Tomebamba. Some milestones are part of the history of this church. For example, the building work took three and a half centuries, between extensions, adaptations and ornamentation works, always counting on the contribution of the city's inhabitants. It was finished in 1924, with the mural painting of the artist Nicolás Vivar. Another important event occurred in the 18th century, when the French Geodesic Mission of 1736 used the church’s old tower to measure the arc of the earth's meridian. A commemorative plaque, attributed to the Colombian sage Caldas, says "Tower more famous than the pyramids of Egypt", in reference to the Geodesic Mission. The first public clock was installed in the bell tower overlooking Sucre Street in 1751. And the first bellows organ in the city, which still exists today, was mounted in the church choir in 1739. Another very singular fact is that Cuenca is one of the few cities in Ecuador, if not the only one, that has two cathedrals one in front of the other: The New or Immaculate Cathedral and the Old Cathedral. For some decades the Old Cathedral stopped being used for regular religious services and after its most recent renovation in 1999, it became a Museum of Religious Art and a place for concerts and cultural events. Its art collection includes sculptures by Miguel Vélez and Gaspar Sangurima and paintings by Daniel Alvarado, Nicólas Henriquez and Rafael Vivar. In addition, it is possible to admire the original model of the New Cathedral, work of Juan Baustista Stiehle, exposed in one of the chapels of the Church and through an archaeological window it is possible to observe the ossuary in the subsoil of the temple. In the house of the canons there is a permanent exhibition of old photographs of Cuenca. The Old Cathedral offers guided tour service for visitors.

0.55 Km.

Municipal Economuseum "Casa del Sombrero"

The Municipal Economuseum "Casa del Sombrero" has four permanent exhibition rooms where visitors can appreciate the art of weaving the toquilla straw hat through videos, photographic representations, objects and materials used over time for this artisan work , practiced since pre-Columbian times. It has two exhibition rooms and sales of hats and articles made of toquilla straw.

0.56 Km.

Calderon Park (Central Park) in Cuenca

The Calderon Park, since the foundation of the city four and a half centuries ago, is the heart of Cuenca, the central point of its social, political and religious activities, or a silent witness to its most relevant historical events. It has been called Abdon Calderon Park since 1932, when the cast bronze statue of the "Héroe Niño" was located, which is eternally guarded by the giant Chilean araucarias, planted in 1875 by former president Luis Cordero. Its name evolved with the city, called Plaza Pública at the beginning of this one, then it became Plaza Grande or Mayor, Plaza Principal y de Armas, Plaza Vargas Torres at the beginning of the 20th century. Its benches are a meeting place for retirees, students or all kinds of walkers. It is a working place for photographers, street musicians, craftsmen, shoe shiners, newspaper and magazine sellers. Its gazebo is the stage for various cultural and political events or the secret accomplice of lovers. It is also famous for its portals that offer shelter from the rain or a hot sunny day or the design of its trees and flowers in geometric flower pots. The marble facades of the Palace of Justice and the New Cathedral stand out in the Park. Every year it is the venue for authentic popular festivals. The first established with the Cuenca Foundation is the "Septenario" in the month of June - 7 days of celebration in honour of the Body of Christ or "Corpus Christi" - which is manifested by the sale of sweets in traditional stalls on the paths around the park, fireworks called "castles" and "mad cows" or the raising of hot air balloons. Thousands of citizens gather every night, for 1 week, to watch the show. The second one is known as "El Pase del Niño Viajero", which takes place every December 24th. Center of the power, the Park in its surroundings lodges the main public buildings of political, judicial, religious, cultural and commercial institutions: the Old Cathedral, the house of the Family Ordóñez Mata, the Governor's Office of the province of the Azuay, stores Juan Eljuri, Vatex Galleries, Tosi House, the Old Seminary, the New Cathedral, the House of the Culture, the notaries, the Municipality of Cuenca, the Superior Court of Justice, BanEcuador. In recent years, the Calle Santa Ana, which is part of the original layout of the city, was reopened to tourism.

0.59 Km.