So many were the balconies, that 'limeņos' never thought of them as being something unique. Lima was simply considered "the city of the balconies" by all foreigners." Thus described Barbara Dalheimer, in one of her books, the trip she made to Peru towards the end of the 19th century and her stay in Lima, a city that had always attracted her from what she had heard about it.

According to historians, the noble and wealthy people who settled in the capital of the viceroyship built their mansions and estates very similar in architecture to the Arab-moresque style of Spain.

Among the customs of these immigrants, it was considered inappropriate that their women go out of doors; that is why the windows also displayed those railings so typical in northern Africa which, at the same time, served to keep cool and give shade in a permanently rainless climate, characteristic to Lima and Morocco. These windows permitted the ladies of Lima's high society to observe what occurred in the streets without having to go outside.

	Luxury and Otentation