Moche

The traditional town of Moche maintains its Indian tradition to be heirs of one of the most flourishing societies in our history tradition: The Moches.

They preserve their cultural traditions in their festivities to San Isidro Labrador, Patron of Agriculture, in the religiosity of its Holy Week and the celebration of the Feast of St. Lucia de Moche.

Moche people as well as the Moche countryside are frequented by visitors on weekends for its typical dishes such as Sopa Teologa and Pepián of Choclo.

The village of Santa Lucia de Moche

Santa Lucia de Moche is located in the valley of Moche, very close to the city of Trujillo of Peru, to the left margin, downstream, of the river Moche. In the picturesque countryside of this valley and very close to that town are located today called Huacas del Sol and the Moon, tourist attractions that are being put into value after a scientific restoration work.

Santa Lucia de Moche was the geographical, political and administrative capital of one of the cacicazgos existing in the valley of Chimo, place where the city of Trujillo of Peru was established.

The caciques that happened along the years, were subject to the absolute power of the chief cacique of the valley of Chimo.

The mocheros preserve until the present almost all their ancestral customs and the characteristic phenotype of this regal race millenarian.

It is located in the Main Squarer of the District of Moche. This church of Indians was built by the order of the Duke La Palata in 1685, the master of the field who led this work was Pedro Mateo Azabache de La Cruz, also stands out the murals of the painter mochero Manuel Marquez and images of the Lord of Mercy, San Isidro Labrador, the Virgin of Santa Lucia de Moche, among others.

In the road to Huacas del Sol y la Luna, we find workshops descendants artisans of the Moche culture, such as Artisan House “Face Inconceivable” of the García Vásquez family, whose members made their home one of the first workshops handicraft countryside to show tourists the legacy of the Moche, and produce replicas of the Moche ceramics through the clay, using molds and painted with colored earth, also they perform works carved in stone and carved wood.
Another important point would be the Artisan Workshop “El Carrizo”, where they make products in reed and birulí, the workshop “Manos Mocheras” a work of fine leather finish and crafts of “Centeno”workshop that made replicas of colonial furniture and images of saints, plus decorative pictures with Moche motifs.
You can also visit the Parador Huaca de la Luna Tourist Artisan Square.

Mate Burilado Mochero Art
It is an artistic expression elaborated on the basis of the mate or also commonly called as “cheko”, from which you get a high quality craftsmanship and export.
It has two tendencies that are iconographic (that is based on the stylistic designs of the ancestral culture moche) and a commercial line that for its fusion qualities and artistic styles is more original.

Wood Carving Art
At the beginning of the 20th century, Moche begins to carve objects allusive to its extinct Mochica culture; so they originate with their own style mochero, icons or religious altarpieces carved in wood.
The forms evoke the Spanish colonial style or French Gothic that were predominant until the republican time but that the artists mocheros were putting to these recordings or abstracted drawings of the moche ceramics that give its peculiar characteristic over others that have originated in diverse parts from the country.