The monastery of Santa Catalina (Saint 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. the territory of the monastery buildings, mostly built in the Mudejar style with brightly painted walls. Currently about 20 nuns live in the Northern part of the complex. The rest of the monastery is open for visits.

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

The monastery was designed for 450 people, about a third of them nuns, and the rest servants.

In 1960, the monastery of Santa Catalina was twice badly damaged during the earthquake. Local nuns had to build new housing units in the neighborhood. Over time, the monastery was gradually fully restored by Promociones Turisticas del Sur SA and world monuments Fund. It also helped to pay for electrification and water supply of the monastery. Then it was decided to open the monastery to the public.