The plaza mayor is the core of the city. It is surrounded by the Government Palace, Cathedral of Lima, Archbishop's Palace of Lima, the Municipal Palace, and the Palace of the Union.
LimaÍs 140-sq-meter Plaza de Armas, also called the Plaza Mayor, was not only the heart of the 16th-century settlement established by Francisco Pizarro, it was a center of the SpaniardsÍ continent-wide empire. To the northeast is the block-long Palacio de Gobierno.