The building, which houses the Museum of Religious Art, was built between 1537 and 1538 a year on the foundation of the palace of Inca Roca, one block from the Plaza de Armas in Cusco.

During the time of the Inca Empire (Quechua Tahuantinsuyo - the largest Indian nation in South America centuries XI-XVI) in this place was the Palace of Inca Roca, where he lived Khatun Rumiyok ruler and his family, and it was located in the Indian Brotherhood of Panaca. Now you can see in the center of the stone wall of the museum building polygon block - the famous stone of twelve angles, which was used in the construction of their facilities Inca Indians.

This royal palace lived the first bishop of Peru Fray Vicente de Valverde, his diocese stretched from Nicaragua to Tierra del Fuego, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Then it became the property of Costa and Pablo Gallineto, Marquis San Juan Buena Vista, whose remains are buried in the crypt of the church of Santo Domingo de Cuzco. Later the building became the property of the family and the Contreras Kharaba, awnings Rokafuerte who were patrons of local artists. In 1948, Monsignor Felipe Santiago Hermosa and Sarmiento, the first archbishop of Cuzco, purchased the Palace at the expense of the diocese. In 1957, after the reconstruction, the building became the Palace of the Archbishop of Cuzco, Monsignor Carlos Maria Jurgens.

In 1966, the Archbishop of Cuzco, Monsignor Ricardo Durand Flores taking the first steps to transform the palace into a museum of religious art, which was inaugurated in 1969 with the support of Don Jose Orihuela Yabara. "Fund Jose Orihuela Yabara" passed into the ownership of the museum collection of 169 paintings and ivory crucifix, furniture and images of high artistic value. There was also handed a gilded Baroque altar, which was installed in the chapel of the Archbishop's Palace.

The museum's collection consists mainly of religious art paintings of Cusco School. You can also estimate the classical architecture of the colonial era of the building, walk through its courtyard surrounded by arcades and decorated with mosaic tiles brought from Seville. In the museum you can see the works of Juan Marcos Zapata and other painters of the colonial era, as well as paintings by local artist Diego Quispe Tito. It is necessary to take the time to inspect the chapel, decorated in different styles, and the halls of the palace with an amazing carpeted.