Pueblo Libre

Pueblo Libre, formerly Magdalena Vieja, distrito (district), in the southwestern Lima–Callao metropolitan area, Peru. Mainly a middle-income residential community, it is dotted with small parks. Although many of the homes are modern, some predate Peru’s independence from Spain (1824). The liberators Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín both lived in Pueblo Libre in what is now the Museum of the Republic. The district is home to the National Anthropology and Archaeological Museum, featuring ceramics, metals, funeral offerings, and carved stone figures from pre-Hispanic cultures. The private Rafael Larco Herrera Museum, housed in an 18th-century mansion built over a 7th-century pre-Columbian pyramid, displays 3,000 years of ancient Peruvian art and artifacts. A former hacienda is now the main campus of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (1917). Pop. (2005) 71,892.