The Sheraton Lima Historic Center, known as the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center until 2022,[1] is a luxury hotel located in the historic centre of Lima, Peru. The hotel is part of the Lima Civic Center, which includes a multi-purpose building and a shopping mall, which was itself built above the grounds of the former Lima Penitentiary.[2][3]
| Sheraton Lima Historic Center | |
|---|---|
 The building in 2013 | |
 | |
| Alternative names | Sheraton Lima Hotel & Convention Center |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Brutalist |
| Location | Historic Centre of Lima |
| Address | 170 Luis Bedoya Reyes Ave. |
| Inaugurated | 1 March 1973 |
| Owner | Sheraton Hotels and Resorts |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 20 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Ricardo Jaxa-Malachowski Benavides |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 431 |
History
editAmerican hotel chain Sheraton Hotels and Resorts arrived in Peru at the end of the 1960s, and began construction of its hotel on the south side of the Lima Civic Center where the Lima Penitentiary was formerly located. The building where it was built formed, together with the Torre de Lima of the Civic Centre, a classic view of the predominant Lima skyline during the 1970s.[2][3]
The hotel opened its doors on 1 March 1973, as the Sheraton Lima Hotel. Despite rumours of ghosts of the former prison haunting the place, the hotel opened without incident.[4] In its early years, it housed people such as Venezuelan actress Lupita Ferrer and singer José Luis Rodríguez, Cuban singer Celia Cruz and Spanish singer Miguel Bosé.[1]
Being located in the Paseo de los Héroes Navales, the hotel has had an active participation in the political life of Peru, serving as a dais for the political rallies that have been held in said plaza. During the events of 5 February 1975, known as the Limazo, the hotel, as well as the neighbouring Lima Tower of the Civic Centre, were damaged by a fire amid riots in their immediate surroundings.[5][6] In the year 2000 the stage was raised during the Four Quarters March.
On August 19, 1990, José Leandro Reaño Cabrejos, an employee of the Banco de Comercio threw the lifeless body of his lover, Marita Soledad Alpaca Raa, from his room's window at the hotel's nineteenth floor after a heated argument. Reaño immediately fled to Rio de Janeiro following the murder, having paid local policemen to tamper with the investigation, but returned and in 1995 was sentenced to seven years in prison, released in 1998 after paying S/. 120,000.[7][8][9]
On 30 May 2016, Natalie Paola Rikeros, a 17-year-old Venezuelan girl travelling with a Hare Krishna group, committed suicide by jumping from the hotel's rooftop after sneaking into the building's stairwell.[10][11] The girl was erroneously identified by local police as a Christian Colombian girl under the name Paola Dominice Pérez, and the information was spread by early reports.[10][12][13] The event drew a crowd on the street below, and was caught on film by bystanders.[14]
In August 2022, the hotel officially changed its name to Sheraton Lima Historic Center to "strengthen its ties" with the historic centre of Lima.[1][4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Treneman, Alvaro (3 August 2022). "Sheraton: Historias del emblemático hotel de Lima que ahora cambia de nombre". Perú 21.
- ^ a b "Los 40 años del Hotel Sheraton de Lima". El Comercio. 18 March 2013.
- ^ a b "Conoce qué prestigioso hotel limeño era antes la penitenciaría más peligrosa (FOTOS)". Correo. 30 June 2018.
- ^ a b "Sheraton, ¿por qué el emblemático hotel cambiará de nombre a inicios de agosto?". Federación de Periodistas del Perú. 4 August 2022.
- ^ Batalla, Carlos (29 November 2020). "Huelga policial 1975: el episodio que casi acaba con el gobierno de Velasco Alvarado". El Comercio.
- ^ "5 de febrero de 1975". ARKIV Perú. 5 February 2013.
- ^ Alegre Tinoco, Miguel (27 June 2024). "Caso Marita Alpaca: Banquero arrojó a su amante desde el piso 19 del hotel Sheraton". Trome.
- ^ "El útero de Marita: La macabra y triste historia de Marita Alpaca que conmocionó al país". Perú 21. 25 September 2021.
- ^ Batalla, Carlos (6 September 2022). "Marita Alpaca: el caso de la mujer arrojada del piso 19 del Sheraton y el culpable que evadió su sentencia por cinco años". El Comercio.
- ^ a b Mamani, María Elena (25 October 2022). "La joven del Sheraton: se subió hasta el piso 20 del hotel, trepó un muro y se lanzó ante la mirada atónita de miles de personas". Infobae.
- ^ "Sheraton: conoce aquí la verdadera historia de la joven suicida". El Popular. 12 June 2016.
- ^ "Adolescente se suicidó lanzándose desde último piso del hotel Sheraton". RPP Noticias. 1 June 2016.
- ^ "Joven que se suicidó lanzándose de la azotea del Hotel Sheraton era colombiana". Andina. 1 June 2016.
- ^ "Hotel Sheraton: testigos captaron estas imágenes del suicidio". El Comercio. 1 June 2016.
External links
edit- Footage of a fire in the Hotel during the Limazo, captured by an AP cameraman (5 February 1975)