Trujillo audiotours

Trujillo was the first city in Peru to declare independence from Spain, doing so on December 29, 1820 -- seven years before Lima finally followed. That assertiveness feels appropriate for a city that sits in the Moche Valley surrounded by some of the most significant archaeological sites in the Americas. Chan Chan, the largest pre-Columbian city ever built in adobe, sprawls just west of town: at its peak in the 15th century it housed over 50,000 people across ten royal citadels, and the Chimu kings who ruled from it controlled a coastal empire stretching 1,000 kilometers.

The city's historic center, ringed by remnants of its original Spanish walls, preserves 72 colonial and republican-era blocks in shades of yellow, blue, and rose.

The Plaza de Armas holds the cathedral begun in 1647, and the mansions on Jiron Independencia display the iron window grilles that became Trujillo's signature architectural detail -- elaborate wrought-iron screens that filtered the desert light and kept interiors cool. Simon Bolivar governed Peru temporarily from a house on this square in 1824.