Santa Beatriz

Santa Beatriz is a neighbourhood in Lima District. It is the southernmost area of the district. It limits to the north, with the historic centre of Lima; to the east, with La Victoria; to the south, with Lince; and to the west, with Jesús María.

During the early 20th century, it housed important figures of Peruvian literature.

History
Located in the Huatica valley, when the Spanish conquest took place, Francisco Pizarro awarded this estate to Diego de Agüero, who named it the Hacienda Santa Beatriz. Upon the death of his son, Diego de Agüero y Garay, the agricultural property was acquired by the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, in 1629. After the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1771 the government sold the property to Manuel de la Torre y Quiroz, who, together with his wife Águeda Josefa de Tagle, founded an estate on the hacienda. According to the law of separation of estates, the estate passed to Josefa de Tagle, IV Marchioness of Torre Tagle, from whom the State expropriated the estate in 1870 for the construction of an agronomy school.

Eminently residential in nature, it was the first urbanization created outside the boundaries of the old historic centre of Lima. It was founded during the government of President Augusto B. Leguía. Located in the district was the Hipódromo de Santa Beatriz (today the Campo de Marte), which was the oldest in Peru and operated until the mid-1930s when it was replaced by the Hipódromo de San Felipe. At this racecourse, members of the British colony also met to practice golf prior to the founding of the Lima Golf Club and the first landing strip in Peru also functioned, prior to the construction of the Limatambo International Airport.

The urbanization section was planned according to North American characteristics (very consistent with Leguía's time), with main avenues (Arenales, Arequipa and Petit Thouars), two-storey mansions, garages for cars and large gardens similar to mansions. Its urbanization in the early 1930s broke all the residential patterns of Lima, where wealthy families began to leave the Centre of Lima to move beyond the limits of Paseo Colón and also for direct access to the Miraflores spas.

The architecture of the houses surrounding Arequipa and Arenales avenues had a European style and in the area of Petit Thouars avenue adjacent to the Lince neighbourhoods (the former Lobatón hacienda) they had an art deco style.

Landmarks
The Santa Beatriz urbanization concentrates three of the main arteries of the city of Lima: Arequipa, Petit Thouars, and Arenales avenues, and also houses various public buildings and cultural centres such as:
 * The National Stadium of Peru
 * Lima Art Museum
 * The headquarters of the Founders of Independence Society
 * Rospigliosi Castle, built in 1929 by Carlos Rospigliosi Vigil. Since 1949, it has been the headquarters of the Air Warfare Academy, as property of the Peruvian State.
 * The Church of Saint Thérèse
 * The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Colegio Raimondi until 1997
 * The Spanish Cultural Centre
 * The Radio Nacional del Perú
 * Luigi Pirandello Theatre
 * The Park of the Exhibition
 * Hernán Velarde Park
 * The Park of the Reserve, which houses the Magic Water Tour
 * The Lawn Tennis Club
 * A number of EsSalud buildings

It also houses diplomatic and military institutions such as the Embassy of Argentina (as well as its consulate), the Embassy of Venezuela, the former embassy of the Republic of China, the residence of the ambassador of the United States, the Headquarters of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Peru and the Military Police Court.

It also houses the headquarters of the longest-running television stations in the country, América Televisión, Panamericana Televisión and TV Perú.

Santa Beatriz is home to educational institutions such as Norbert Wiener University, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega University and the Technological University of Peru, the National School of Statistics and Informatics (ENEI), the private schools of San Andrés (formerly the Anglo–Peruvian School), Dante Alighieri (formerly Antonio Raimondi), Trilce, Saco Oliveros, and Palmer.