IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B

Abstract

Cusco, Peru, and its monumental landscape have inspired centuries of historical head turning. The contemporary city houses the remains of Inca imperial monuments, crowned by the architecture of Spanish America. This urban space is critical for the construction of Andean identity and for Peru’s relationship with its colonial and pre-Hispanic pasts. In 1950, a cataclysmic earthquake damaged the city’s unique Inca-colonial core, launching Cusco onto the world stage at the precise moment the United Nations was theorizing technical studies for regional development and pilot programs for monuments and sites. Two early United Nations’ studies influenced Cusco’s post-disaster recovery and preservation. By the early 1970s-1990s, Peru designated a national monumental zone in central Cusco; Peruvian architects and the National Institute of Culture (INC) envisioned this space as an historic center. In 1983, Cusco’s Historic Center was inscribed as a UNESCO site of World Heritage. However, because of its early inscription and the inter-institutional complexity, it took decades to define, agree on, and approve a Master Plan. This paper argues that the Master Plan was formalized, in part, using a mytho-historical urban form, the pumallatctan, or Puma City, as a solution for the heritage boundary and historical narrative. This colonial-era construct links contemporary urban planning and the city’s World Heritage zone with Inca legends and legacies of the Conquest. While the pumallactan was not part of Cusco’s nomination process or prevalent in 20th century urban planning schemes, a critical study of its use in UNESCO projects and later planning documents demonstrates inter-institutional mediation between Cusco’s municipality, the INC, and the World Heritage Committee. Ultimately, the pumallactan sutures the 21st century city and its future to a resurrected Spanish-produced colonial past under the auspices of World Heritage.