Monastery of Santa Catalina (St. Catherine) is a Dominican convent located in Arequipa. It was built in 1579 and enlarged in the XVII century. More than 20 000 sq.m territory of the monastery buildings are built mostly in the Mudejar style with brightly colored walls. Currently, about 20 nuns live in the northern part of the complex. The rest of the monastery is open to the public.

The founder of the monastery was a rich widow, Maria de Guzman. According to the existing tradition of the time, the second son or daughter in the family had to dedicate his life to the service of the Church and the monastery took only women belonging to the high society of Spanish families. Each family had to pay a dowry when their daughters entering the monastery. For example, the amount of the dowry was 2,400 silver coins, equivalent to about 150 000 dollars today. The nuns also had to provide for themselves and the monastery of 25 items on the list were: statues, paintings, lamps, clothes. Rich novices passed monastery dishes from the English porcelain, silk curtains, carpets. But the poor have also had the opportunity to enter a monastery. Although you can see the monastery of kelyam that most of the nuns came from wealthy families.

The monastery was designed for 450 people, about a third of them nuns, others - employees.

In 1960, the Monastery of Santa Catalina was twice badly damaged in the quake. Local nuns had to build new housing in the neighborhood. Over time, the monastery gradually has been completely restored with the help of Promociones Turisticas del Sur SA and the World Monuments Fund. It also helped pay for work on water supply and electrification of the monastery. Then it was decided to open the monastery to the public.