The road that today constitutes the street was laid by Francisco Pizarro when he founded the city of Lima on January 18, 1535. In the 16th century, the Church of San Francisco was built. An event of repercussion recounted by several chroniclers would happen there. They point out that during the earthquake of 1630, an image of the Virgin Mary turned her face towards the main altar of the church just at the moment the movement stopped. The people of Lima, within their Catholicism, interpreted that the mother of Christ turned to see the saint and appease the fury of her son who was causing the earthquake. Given this fact, the Miracle Chapel (Spanish: Capilla del Milagro) was built on the same site it occupies now.[1] Likewise, the Colegio Mayor de San Felipe y San Marcos was founded on that road, which would later be refounded in the Convictorio de San Carlos. The San Ildefonso School was also located on that same block.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, several monasteries were founded on this road. In 1808, outside the Gate of Wonders (Spanish: Portada de Maravillas), where this street ended, the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery was built, the first general cemetery in Lima. In 1956, El Ángel Cemetery was built. This motivated the sector of Jirón Áncash where both cemeteries are located to be called Cemetery Avenue (Spanish: Avenida Cementerio).
The Portada de Maravillas in 1867.
In 1862, when a new urban nomenclature was adopted, the road was named jirón Áncash, after the department of Áncash. Prior to this renaming, each block (cuadra) had a unique name:[2]
Block 1: Desamparados, after the chapel of the same name.[3] The Bar Cordano is located here.
Block 2: Rastro de San Francisco, because the first animal slaughterhouse and the first rastro (place for selling meat) were located there from the founding of the city until 1568, when for health reasons the slaughterhouse was moved to the San Lázaro neighbourhood but not the rastro, which lasted until the end of the 18th century.[4]
Block 4: Milagro, after the chapel of the same name.[1] It is also the location of Nicolás de Piérola's house, where he died in 1913, followed by his wife one year later.[6][7]
Block 12: Refugio, after the hospice of the same name.[14]
Block 13: Maravillas, after the gate that was part of the walls of Lima, itself named after the church of the same name. This long street had three sections: Refugio, San Salvador and Puerta Falsa del Cercado.[15]
In 1868 the Walls of Lima collapsed and with them the gate disappeared. At the end of the 19th century, the Desamparados station was established as the main railway station of the Central Railway that penetrated towards the Andes to the city of Huancayo.
In 2005, the former facilities of a colonial house were discovered discovered during excavations for the construction of a building. The area is currently the Bodega y Quadra Museum, a site museum that illustrates the daily life of the locals during the Viceregal era.[16]
