Pisac

An early settlement, probably older than the Inca, stood on the hillside between the Quitamayo and Chongo streams, and its people farmed on terraces and on the valley floor before moving closer to the road to Cusco as threats from rival groups declined. When the Inca conquered the area, they built a large complex on the ridge above the valley. Most scholars credit it to the emperor Pachacuti, built no earlier than 1440, as an estate to support his panaca — his family and descendants — a royal retreat, a ceremonial centre and a refuge in times of danger.

Despite its size and closeness to Cusco, none of the Spanish chroniclers mention the complex. Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish conquerors destroyed it in the early 1530s, and in the 1570s the viceroy Francisco de Toledo built the modern town on the valley floor below the ruins. The church of San Pedro Apóstol rose on Inca foundations.

The first modern description of the ruins came from the American diplomat Ephraim George Squier, who visited in the 19th century and described them in his 1877 book on Peru. The 1950 earthquake damaged the church, which was rebuilt and then controversially demolished and reconstructed in its colonial style. In 1983 the Pisac National Archaeological Park was created to protect the complex, and the town, close to Cusco and on the road into the Sacred Valley, became one of the busiest stops on the tourist circuit.

The market is Pisac's best-known institution. Its official days are Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, but craft stalls now fill Plaza Constitución and the streets around it every day, selling textiles, ceramics and souvenirs. On Sunday the market is at its biggest, when Quechua communities from the surrounding hills come to town to sell their produce, much of it organic, and to buy supplies for the week, so the commercial and the local still share the square.

The town keeps its own Inca legends, among them that of the Ñusta Encantada, the enchanted princess. The Virgen del Carmen festival in July brings costumed dancers and a parade through the streets, and the town's community museum covers the area's history from the archaic period to the Inca and the textiles and ceramics of local Quechua communities.

As elsewhere in the region, offerings to Pachamama and the apus, the mountain spirits, remain part of farming life in the villages above the town.

Pisac is a small town at 2,972 metres, in the district of the same name in Calca Province, at the southern end of the Sacred Valley. Tourism dominates the centre: the archaeological park, the market and the many lodges and cafés employ much of the town, and tour buses from Cusco arrive through the day. Away from the square, the district's villages live from farming potatoes and maize on terraces and the valley floor.

The day starts early, with colectivos and buses running to Cusco and the valley from about five in the morning, and quietens in the evening once the day visitors leave. Local guides, drivers, cooks, stallholders and weavers depend on the visitor trade, while farming families from the villages keep the Sunday market as their own.

Visitors have obviously diminished some of the town's charm without fundamentally transforming it. The pressures are those of the whole valley: crowds at the market, traffic on the valley road, and dependence on tourism, which the protests and blockades since late 2022 have hit hard.

The town's hornos coloniales, colonial-era bakeries with traditional wood-fired ovens, are the place for a snack or a quick lunch, and bakers walk around the square selling their specialities. Around the market and the square, cafés and restaurants serve Andean dishes, vegetarian food and wood-fired pizza, and drinks such as chicha morada, the sweet purple-maize drink.

The food of the wider Cusco highlands is everywhere. Cuy al horno, guinea pig roasted whole, is the celebration dish, and soups built on potatoes, maize and chuño, freeze-dried potato, are everyday food. Menú lunches of soup and a main course are the cheap option in the small local restaurants, and food stands in a corner of the market serve plates of traditional vegetarian food, where visitors can sit down with local people.

The Sunday market is the place to see what the valley grows. Quechua farmers from the surrounding communities bring their produce, much of it organic, and stock up on supplies for the week.