Santa Catalina Convent, Arequipa, Peru

Advantages: Intriguing past, beautiful interiors, peaceful atmosphere
Disadvantages: The history that made it possible

The convent of Santa Catalina doesn't look much from the outside. Its long outer wall blanks off one side of an otherwise busy street near Arequipa's central square. Arequipa is known as the "white city" because much of it is built of sillar, the local white volcanic stone, but time has stained the convent's porous sillar exterior a dingy grey. The effect is not so much forbidding as simply unappealing, unwelcoming. Still, as Arequipa's main tourist ...
...* The Monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena, to give it is full name, is one of the oldest monastic foundations in South America, dating from 1579. Why it was termed a monastery ("monasterio"), when it has only ever housed a community of nuns and a suitable Spanish word for convent ("convento") exists, is obscure; I shall refer to it as a convent here. Founded by the widow of a leading Spanish/Peruvian notable, the convent was richly endowed from ... Read review

It looks like a really tranquil place to be. I'd love to visit it one day. this is somewhere I'd really be able to relax.