About Santuario de Polloc
The work is associated with the Italian priest and artist Daniele Badiali, who worked in the area and was killed in 1997; the mosaic project continued after his death and the church has become the thing the district is known for. It is unlike anything else in the region. Where the colonial churches in Cajamarca are carved stone in a baroque tradition, this is twentieth-century and later, made from fragments, and much brighter than its setting.
Three to four hours covers it with the drive, which climbs to about 3,000 metres on a road that is better in the dry months. It runs year-round and is a working place of worship, so it is worth going in that spirit rather than treating it purely as a photographic subject.
A note on the limits of this entry: Polloc is documented more thinly than the archaeological sites, and specifics about the sanctuary's history and the current state of the mosaic work should be confirmed locally. What is stated here is what can be said with confidence.
A rural church in La Encanada covered inside and out in millions of coloured mosaic tiles.
The sanctuary at Polloc, in the district of La Encanada about forty kilometres east of the city, is a rural church covered inside and out in coloured mosaic. Walls, columns, arches, the courtyard and the interior panels are all tiled in broken ceramic, with figures and scenes worked into the surfaces.
Quick Facts
- Allow
- 3-4 hours
- Best time:
- Year-round
- Elevation:
- 3,000 m
- Region:
- Cajamarca
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