Many histories, one family

The Diez-Canseco mansion can be found in a quiet part of the residential district of Surco; it used to be the house of the old Monterrico Chico Hacienda, to which references exist from as early as the middle of the 18th Century. Partly restored by Francisco and Josilu Diez-Canseco, the mansion admirably preserves the characteristics of a traditional Peruvian country house of the republican period.

From the beautiful stone façade carved by craftsmen from Cajamarca to the ceramics that decorate the elegant dining room, the Diez-Canseco mansion is full of magnificent objects of pre-Hispanic, colonial and republican art. Doctor Francisco Diez Canseco Tavara is the descendant of a very old Peruvian family whose first member arrived in Peru at the end of the 17th Century. Since then this old Lima family has acquired a large collection of paintings, sculptures and other works of art.

Of this collection a series of objects that once belonged to Francisca Diez-Canseco Corbacho are of particular historical value. She was the great great grandmother of the current generation and wife of Ramon Castilla, President of Peru from 1845 to 1851; there is also a charming dinner service that belonged to another illustrious historical figure, Andres A. Cáceres, President of Peru on more than one occasion and a Hero of the Fatherland. He was the great great grandfather of Josilu de Diez-Canseco. Venetian tables dating from the 19th Century and important paintings of the Cusco School as well as trunks and bureaus nearly three hundred years old stand out for their artistic value.

With its patios and gardens the Diez Canseco mansion gives visitors a taste of Peruvian architecture from the republican period, strongly influenced by Spanish tastes but including important indigenous elements of art and architecture.

In the house's exquisite dining room visitors can sample traditional Peruvian cuisine whilst surrounded by the furniture, architecture and decoration of an important period in Peru's past.