Basilica and Convent of San Francisco, Lima

Vasconcelos drew the plans after the earthquake of 4 February 1655 flattened the Franciscans' earlier convent, and the master builder Manuel de Escobar ran the site while the architect worked from a plan meant above all to survive the next tremor. The cornerstone went in on 8 May 1657; the church was consecrated on 3 October 1672, four years after Vasconcelos died and never having seen it finished. His solution kept the masonry walls and piers low and roofed the nave in bóvedas de quincha — cane and gypsum plaster laid over a light timber armature rather than stone vaulting — a system that let the building ride out the earthquakes of 1687 and 1746 that brought down heavier vaults elsewhere in Lima. The twin-towered baroque façade, rebuilt after later damage, fronts a convent whose catacombs, an ossuary for an estimated 25,000 limeños, remain one of the city's most visited sites. The complex forms part of the Historic Centre of Lima, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, and the Franciscan community still occupies the convent today.