City of Quito

At 2,850 metres in the Andes, Quito rose in the 16th century on the foundations of an Inca city, and its historic core remains the least-altered in Latin America despite a major earthquake in 1917. The monastic complexes of San Francisco and of Santo Domingo, together with the Jesuit church of La Compañía, glow with the gilded interiors of the Quito Baroque school, a fusion of European, Moorish and indigenous artistry. In 1978, Quito became one of the first cities ever inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.