This week, the Ministry of Culture launched a S/. 5 million project to restore and convert the ruin of Tambo Inga, located in Puente Piedra district on the northern outskirts of Lima, into a creative space for the community while preserving cultural patrimony.
The ruin, according to the Minister of Culture Salvador del Solar was the most important administrative center of the Incas in northern Lima and is aprox. 500 years old. It was built during the final years of the empire.
In recent times, this important site had become a site of juvenile delinquency and environmental contamination until the Ministry of Culture launched the initiative to connect the past with the present in communities that contain important archaeological sites to create a “living culture”. The space would not only preserve the ruin but also convert it into a site where cultural events and creative projects take place in the community.
“Culture is resistance,” affirmed Salvador del Solar to La Republica, during the initiation ceremony for the project realized on May 16. These “huacas”, or ceremonial and administrative centers, are actually quite common in Lima and the success of this project could become a model for other communities.
The Ministry of Culture is depending on the local municipality of Puente Piedra to contribute S/. 3.4 million, almost 70% of the finances required for the project. The Ministry will continue to seek and initiate further projects that connect communities with their past throughout Peru.