Stairs of the San Francisco Monastery in Quito by Vojvoda

The Plaza of San Francisco is a huge paved pedestrian square in Quito, lined with old and charming colonial houses with balconies. This plaza was built over an Inca temple. This plot was where the palace of the Incan ruler Atahualpa (1497-1533) had once stood. This place is a major public square upon which faces La Iglesia y Monasterio de San Francisco. Construction of the Monastery began a few weeks after the founding of the city of Quito in 1534 and ended in 1604. You enter to the Courtyard (El atrio) of the Convent where, at least in the 16th and 17th centuries, ordinary people were sometimes buried, through the convex staircase, designed by the Vatican architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. - Wikipedia via 500px http://j.mp/1wDS751