Things to Do in Trujillo, Peru: Walking Guide

The best things to do in Trujillo include exploring its historic squares and colonial buildings, then discovering the adobe monuments of the Chimú culture. The capital of La Libertad is also closely connected to Peru’s independence and to the Moche Valley, near the Pacific coast. Neywo has a free audio guide for Trujillo with 8 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

What to see in Trujillo’s historic center

Trujillo’s Historic Centre brings together public squares, churches, theatres and grand residences. It is the ideal place to begin exploring the city on foot.

Plaza de Armas of Trujillo

The Plaza de Armas is Trujillo’s oldest and most representative public square, and the place where the city was founded in 1534. It is surrounded by important buildings including the Municipal Palace, the Cathedral of Trujillo and the Archbishop’s Palace.

Four streets cross the square—Jirón Pizarro, Jirón Independencia, Jirón Orbegoso and Jirón Almagro—making it a natural crossroads in the city. The square also has a central place in Trujillo’s modern history: the city’s independence from Spain was proclaimed here on December 29, 1820.

Catedral de Trujillo

Also known as the Cathedral Basilica of Santa María, Trujillo Cathedral stands directly on the Plaza de Armas. Its construction lasted from 1647 to 1666, and its massive appearance was designed to help the building withstand the earthquakes that affect the region.

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mary of the Annunciation and is the seat of the Archdiocese of Trujillo. Pope Paul VI elevated it to the rank of Minor Basilica in 1967.

Palacio Iturregui

The Palacio Iturregui is a neoclassical mansion built in 1842. Today, it serves as the headquarters of the Club Central de Trujillo. Its two-storey façade is distinguished by large windows topped with ironwork shaped like a peineta, a traditional Spanish comb.

Columns reinforce the building’s neoclassical character, while Spanish stone slabs and Italian marble cover the floors. Inside, nineteenth-century furnishings preserve the atmosphere of the period when the Iturregui family lived there.

Iglesia de La Merced

The Iglesia de La Merced is one of Trujillo’s notable colonial landmarks and has been declared a cultural heritage site. Its religious architecture forms part of the historic character of the city centre, where colonial buildings stand close to the main civic spaces.

Teatro Municipal de Trujillo

The Teatro Municipal de Trujillo is another cultural heritage site in the Historic Centre. The theatre has 408 seats and includes an administrative office, a piano room and a ballet hall.

Before the theatre was built, the site housed the Gabinete Óptico, owned by Agustín González Pinillo in 1867. The Municipality of Trujillo acquired it in 1874. A fire caused by the explosion of a film projection machine destroyed the building in 1910; it was rebuilt and reopened in 1923.

Plazuela El Recreo

At the eighth block of Pizarro Street, Plazuela El Recreo offers a quieter setting within the Historic Centre. Peru’s National Institute of Culture has declared it Monumental Heritage of the Nation.

Its centre contains an Italian Baroque marble fountain, originally located in the Plaza de Armas before being moved here in the 1930s. Four statues stand at the corners of the fenced structure around the fountain. Tall, old ficus trees shade the square, while an old water tank recalls the role the site once played in supplying drinking water to local homes.

Discover Trujillo’s Chimú heritage

Huaca Esmeralda

Huaca La Esmeralda is an adobe archaeological site built by the Chimú culture. It belongs to the early stage of the civilization’s development and is closely connected to Chan Chan, its capital.

The temple covers roughly 2,600 square metres and has a rectangular, pyramidal design formed by two platforms connected by two central ramps. The first platform, near the entrance, represents the later phase of construction and features designs of fishing nets containing fish. The older platform behind it has decoration associated with the sea, including nets and the sea otter, in a style also seen at the Palacio Tschudi.

The site places Trujillo’s colonial history in a much broader context: the city is also a gateway to the ancient cultures that developed in northern Peru.

Trujillo’s history and identity

Trujillo is the third most populous city in Peru and the capital of the La Libertad region. It stands on the banks of the Moche River, in the Moche Valley, near the Pacific Ocean and about 559 kilometres north of Lima.

The city was founded in late 1534 by Diego de Almagro under the name Trujillo de Nueva Castilla. Its foundation was formalised on March 5, 1535, when the first cabildo was installed under Francisco Pizarro and the settlement was named Villa de Trujillo, after his hometown in Spain. On November 23, 1537, a royal decree from Carlos V gave it the name Ciudad de Trujillo.

Trujillo is also known as the City of Everlasting Spring, the Capital of the Marinera, and the Cradle of Liberty and the Judiciary in Peru. In 1822, the Congress of the Republic recognised the city as the Meritorious City and Faithful to the Fatherland for its role in the struggle for independence.

For a coastal extension to your visit, Huanchaco adds another destination connected to Trujillo.

Explore Trujillo with a free audio guide

Neywo’s Trujillo, city of eternal spring: colonial squares and a Chimu temple is a self-guided walking tour of 3.73 km. It takes about 91 minutes and includes 7 narrated stops: Plazuela El Recreo, Teatro Municipal de Trujillo, Palacio Iturregui, Iglesia de La Merced, Trujillo Cathedral, Plaza de Armas of Trujillo and Huaca Esmeralda.

Download Neywo and explore without joining a group or following a schedule. Each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace, so the app tells you what you are seeing while you walk through Trujillo.