PRIEST HOUSE

The Priestly House is one of the many buildings inside Choquequirao and it is believed that it was used for religious ceremonies and rituals, given its spiritual importance within the Inca civilization.

This hierarchical organization of pre-Hispanic and Inca societies is transferred to the architectural space. In Choquequirao we also see that there is a spatial organization: there is a public, administrative place, associated to an open space, a plaza, and normally these plazas are associated to temples.  This Priestly House was probably associated with the elite who ran the place.

It is a small and balanced structure, located near the “Ushnu”, a privileged ceremonial place. The “Ushnu” were built as platforms -generally pyramidal or truncated cone-shaped- for the execution of propitiatory rituals in the great festivals of the Tawantinsuyu. They were part of the worship of the mountains (the apu), artificially erected in the sacred plazas (wakaypata) in front of the spaces where the faithful gathered for their worship and festivities. It is presumed that the Inca or his representatives and the priests and other notables occupied the summit.