Azangaro is _par excellence_ the city of hidden treasure. The houses are built of mud and straw, and thatched with coarse grass (_stipa ychu_), the better sort being whitewashed. To the north of the town there is a long ridge of rocky heights; to the south an isolated peaked hill nearly overhangs the town; to the east is the river; and to the west is a plain bounded by the mountains towards Pucara. The church, in the plaza, is like a large barn outside, with walls of mud and straw, and a tower with broad-brimmed red-tiled roof; but on entering it I was astonished at its extraordinary magnificence, so entirely out of proportion to the wealth or importance of this little town. The nave is lined with large pictures on religious subjects, by native artists, in frames of carved wood richly gilt. The elaborate gilded carving was very striking; the leaves, bunches of grapes, and twisted columns, being the workmanship of the famous carvers of Cuzco. Over the arch leading to the chancel there is a picture representing the Triumph of the Faith, in bright colours. The high altar is plated with massive silver, with gilded columns, pictures, and images, in gorgeous profusion up to the roof. On either side are two very remarkable pictures, filling the walls between the altar and the chancel-arch. On the right an allegorical picture, and the Shepherds worshipping. One figure, in the latter picture, a girl holding a basket on her head, is of great merit, and exactly resembles the 'Santa Justa' of Murillo in the Duke of Sutherland's collection. On the left is a picture of the 'Woman taken in Adultery,' and an excellent copy of the well-known 'Worshipping of the Magi,' by Rubens, in the Madrid gallery. In a side chapel there is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' with portraits of two caciques--the heads of the two great families of Azangero--with their wives, one of them very pretty, looking on in a corner. These copies, which are excellent, must have been procured from Europe at very great expense.
[Illustration: THE SONDOR-HUASI, AT AZANGARO. Page 193.]
The author of all this magnificence, according to the inscription on his portrait, which is fixed in a handsome gilt frame by the side of the chancel arch, was the Bachiller Dr. Don Basco Bernardo Lopez de Cangas, a native of Cuzco, and Cura of Azangaro. The interior decorations were completed on January 12th, 1758, and the cura died in 1771. He must have been possessed of enormous wealth, to have enabled him thus to beautify and adorn his church with such lavish profusion.