Court orders Cusco hotel to be demolished

A Four Points by Sheraton hotel, under construction in Cusco since 2015, is to be torn down following a decision by a three-judge panel in Cusco’s Superior Court.  The company building the hotel has been fined 7.56 million soles (about $ 2.3mn) for damages to national heritage.

Justice Wilber Bustamante ruled that not only the partially-built hotel is to be torn down but that the five Inca terraces removed for the works must be reinstalled. His decision explained that the construction violated the urban parameters and distorted the harmony  of the historical center of Cusco, which is listed as a world heritage site by the United Nations.  This decision is final and cannot be appealed.

In an earlier court decision, the judges ruled that the damage to national heritage had indeed occurred but that the Inca terraces could not be restored and that the financial investment made so far was of higher value.

The seven-story building, covering 2,500 m² of land, includes two basements, which have also affected the underground retaining walls of the Saphy canal, according to T’ika Luizar of the Cusco Commission of Jurists. The construction stands out among the buildings that surround it and would have been a dominant feature in the cityscape seen from the city’s main plaza.

“Indignation, that is what all Peruvians and particularly Cusqueños have felt. Here is a work that was being made beyond the regulations and permits it had. There is an illicit aspect to this work,” said archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo, minister of Culture.